Civil and Human Rights Looking Deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Israel is portrayed as a democracy that shares American values. Is this true? Do all its citizens enjoy the same civil rights before the law? What about the human rights of those under occupation?
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Called on the Israeli authorities to investigate fully a systematic poisoning attack which they say has killed more than 20 sheep in Tuwani,
News: "Israeli settlers poisoning our sheep, say West Bank farmers | By Donald Macintyre in Tuwani, West Bank | 27 April 2005
Highly toxic chemicals have been spread on Palestinian sheep pastures in what villagers believe is an escalation of a campaign of harassment against them by Jewish West Bank settlers.
Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to investigate fully a systematic poisoning attack which they say has killed more than 20 sheep in Tuwani, a village of 250 people, and two others in the south Hebron hills.
The poisoning here and in Umm Faggara and Kharruba came to light after a series of violent attacks over the past year by masked men on international volunteers accompanying shepherds and protecting Palestinian children walking to and from school in Tuwani from the outlying village of Tuba. The last, on 16 February, left a Italian human rights activist, Johannes Steger, with a fractured jaw, a torn retina and amnesia.
The villagers blame the nearby settlers of Maon and Havat Maon for the attacks, which have prompted the army and police to provide an armed escort for the children travelling round the settlement between the two villages.
Amnesty has accused the Israeli police - who are fully responsible for this section of the occupied West Bank - of failing adequately to investigate the poisoning and bring its perpetrators to justice. Police say they have made arrests in connection with attacks but do not yet know who is responsible for the poisoning and that an investigation is continuing.
