South Hebron Hills, Susiya

Place:

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Observers:

Ariela and Muhammad; Translator: Natanya

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Jun-2-2020

Morning

העצים שהמתנחל שתל על אדמת עזאם מסומנים בעיגול אדום

The trees that the settler planted on Azzam's land (in the red circle)

Photo:

Ariela Slonim

At the Meitar checkpoint, life has returned to normal. The parking one both sides of the road is packed and also in the field beyond the parking lot.

We turned onto Route 317 to visit our friend Azzam in Susiya. The way is beautiful , even now, colourful and golded, a tractor with a water tank has been sent in front of us to remind us that even in the 21^st century there are people who live without running water.

At Azzam's:

As usual the man is optimistic. Around the tent he has planted young olive trees. I very much hope that they will see them be absorbed by the land and develop, and perhaps they will also grow.

Azzam asked me to publish a story about a settler from Susiya, his name seems to be Amishav. The settler started with two sheep, now their number has risen to five. The process is the well-known settlement process. At first he prayed on the hill between the settlement and the Palestinian settlement, then began to descend with the sheep to the field of wheat and barley which belongs to Azzam as the sheep needed the good food. Next he planted trees (marked in red) and all on land not belonging to him. All these things are done before the eyes of the soldiers who do not intervene and allow the settler to do as he wishes. Police complaints also did not help and nothing was done. One day he also cut down three 40-year-old olive trees (quoting Azzam). The police came and soldiers arrived too. A tracker arrived and confirmed that the trail came from the settler's trailer. The police, of course, were content to warn him. Azzam told of someone, apparently named Eyal Shani who tries to bridge the gap between the settlers and the Palestinians.The settler walks around and is armed with a gun, two dogs and a stick on land which is not his.

I asked Azzam what was going on with the Corona. The morbidity in the PA was very low, thanks to the high self-discipline of the residents. He talks about mutual help between the neighbors. To them, he says, it would not happen that an old, lonely man would die in his home and his body be left until the neighbors complained of a bad odor from the apartment because everything comes to an end.

Location Description

Yata / Southern Hebron hills

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Yatta is a city located in the South Hebron Hills region. It is located in the border zone between the fertile area of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants. The surrounding villages are called Masafar Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, a number of settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with the withholding of water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.

There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Road blocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.

Updated April 2022

Apr-25-2024

Michal Tsadik

Rahwa - the building they have a demolition order on

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Susiya

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The Palestinian area lies between the settlement of Susya and a military base.
The residents began to settle in areas outside the villages in the 1830s and lived in caves, tents and sukkot. To this day they maintain a traditional lifestyle and their livelihood is based on agriculture and herding. Until the 1948 war, the farmers cultivated areas that extended to the Arad area. As a result of the war, a significant portion of their land left on the Israeli side was lost. After the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation, military camps were established in the area, fire zones and nature reserves were declared, and the land area was further reduced.

The Jewish settlement in Susya began in 1979. Since then, there has been a stubborn struggle to remove the remains of Palestinian residents who refuse to leave their place of birth and move to nearby town Yatta. With the development of a tourist site in Khirbet Susya in the late 1980s (an ancient synagogue), dozens of families living in caves in its vicinity were deported. In the second half of the 1990s, a new form of settlement developed in the area - shepherds' farms of individual settlers. This phenomenon increased the tension between the settlers and the original, Palestinian residents, and led to repeated harassment of the residents of the farms towards the Palestinians. At the same time, demolition of buildings and crop destruction by security forces continued, as well as water and electricity prevention. In the Palestinian Susya, as in a large part of the villages of the southern Hebron Mountains, there is no running water, but the water pipe that supplies water to the Susya Jewish settlement passes through it. Palestinians have to buy expensive water that comes in tankers. Solar electricity is provided by a collector system, installed with donation funds. But the frequent demolitions in the villages do not spare water cisterns or the solar panels and power poles designed to transfer solar electricity between the villages.

Updated April 2021, Anat T.