Thread by @CJNVtweets

Last night at 12:30am, we were woken up in the village of Tuwani (occupied West Bank) to frantic calls from our Palestinian partners announcing that the Israeli army was raiding the village for the third time in three weeks. Israeli soldiers physically assaulted three of us. 🧵

Katie, Maya, @ZakWitus, and our Palestinian host Hamoudi descended the stairs from the family guesthouse into their driveway. Some 20 Israeli soldiers, with assault rifles slung across their chests, marched up from the road into the driveway, crowded us, and yelled..

...at us to stop filming and go back inside. We refused and informed them that we are an American Jew here to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian hosts. They then turned and marched further up the road. The four of us followed them, filming. We spoke to them, asking...

in English and Hebrew what they were doing here and requesting that they identify themselves. We were met with silence.

The soldiers turned back around and descended the road, passing our guesthouse and taking position near the village clinic. The man giving orders to the soldiers demanded again that we stop filming, but we again refused, requesting that he identify himself and tell us...

...their purpose for being in the village. Then a soldier assaulted Zak, bear hugging him and struggling with him in order to take his iPhone. Zak screamed, "Don't touch me!"

We broke away and moved back toward the guesthouse, but the soldiers kept pursuing us. They took Hamoudi's phone, and we demanded that they return it. As Hamoudi was talking with a soldier trying to regain his device, a soldier assaulted Zak once more...

striking him in the left forearm and left thigh with his assault rifle. He grabbed Zak, struggling with him for the phone, but Zak successfully resisted him. At this same moment, the commander bear hugged Maya, trying to take her phone, and she screamed.

Another soldier tackled Asher, 61, to the ground, seizing his camcorder (in the video Asher is wearing a bright yellow jacket). Within moments, the commander returned the camcorder. Hamoudi retrieved his phone.

Next, we stood up the road maybe 30-40 meters from the clinic, where the soldiers were taking position, as if preparing to raid it. We kept filming. Eventually, our hosts called us to return to the house, where we stood briefly by a bonfire. The soldiers departed within minutes.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Tuwani, Tommy was standing w/ our Palestinian partner @basel_adra documenting another group of soldiers. Soldiers were occupying the street by the Adraa's gas station. There were maybe a dozen soldiers as well as twelve or so Palestinian residents.

Basel stood in his family's courtyard, which is raised just a few feet above the road. He spoke to the soldiers while filming with his camera. They shouted at him aggressively and pointed their guns, so Zak walked over to him and stood by his side. Because Zak saw...

..the soldiers pointing their guns, he walked over to Basel w/ his hands raised. A soldier shined the light of his rifle at Zak and asked him to move a bit. Zak asked why and the soldier said that if he couldn't see him, Zak might be doing something illegal + he could shoot him!

Finally, the soldiers released the one Palestinian man whom they detained, but without removing his zip-tie cuffs. They threw a couple stun grenades, and then retreated.

By 1:50am, all of the soldiers had departed. A drone was spotted flying over the village a little later on.

What was the purpose of the raid?

We repeatedly asked the soldiers this question in real time, but none of them gave a clear answer. At one point, one soldier mentioned that they were "practicing." Without any arrests, and judging from...

...their stilted and somewhat disorganized maneuvers, it seems plausible that this was simply a training mission.

Of course, another purpose might simply be "making presence felt"--i.e., reminding the Palestinians who is boss in this occupied territory.

Clearly, the abuse and harassment that our activists faced is but a fraction of what our Palestinian hosts experience. For Palestinians, this is the daily nightmare.

However, the sad truth is that when Americans (+ Jews) face this military violence, it grabs int'l attention.

Furthermore, we are privileged enough to have friends in Congress and the US Embassy in Israel/Palestine, which the Israeli military and settlers would be wise to note. In fact, our representatives may already be in touch with our abusers.

That's all for now. #SaveMasaferYatta

.@basel_adra provided the photos and a portion of the video in the first tweet of this thread