Who needs military protection from Israeli soldiers?

: Israeli military escort continues to fail to protect
Palestinian children from settler attacks
14 October 2008

Israeli settlers from the settlement of Ma’on in the South Hebron Hills
attacked Palestinian schoolchildren on their way home from school on
Tuesday 14 October 2008. The children were returning from school in the
village of At-Tuwani to their homes in villages of Tuba and Maghaer al
Abeed. Two adult Israeli settlers waited for them near the end of the
settlement, threw stones at the children and chased them towards Tuba.
“The children were very afraid when they arrived home,” said O, one of the
children’s fathers.

This attack happened in spite of the fact that the Israeli military is
responsible for escorting the children past the settlement of Ma’on and
settlement outpost of Havot Ma’on. Both the settlement and the outpost are
illegal in international law and the outpost is also illegal according to
Israeli law. Despite the fact that there have been repeated attacks on the
Palestinian elementary schoolchildren, and despite Palestinian, Israeli
and international representations, the Israeli military continues to fail
to escort the children safely past the settlement. Their vehicles almost
always stop and turn before the end of the route, which leaves the
children to walk alone on a part of the route where Israeli settlers have
attacked them several times. Internationals monitoring the school escort
cannot see the children in this area.

Settler attacks on the schoolchildren from Tuba and Maghaer al Abeed hav
been a recurrent problem for years, and the implementation of an Israeli
military escort has failed to solve the problem. Last year, the 2007-2008
academic year, settlers attacked the children a total of fourteen times,
as documented in the report “A Dangerous Journey: Settler Violence Against
Palestinian Schoolchildren Under Israeli Military Escort.”

Please contact Christian Peacemaker Teams for any further information.

Contacts:
Team mobilephone in At-Tuwani +972 (0)54 253 1323
Email: cpttuwani@cpt.org

For background information: www.cpt.org