Hebron, South Hebron Hills, Susiya

Place:

Hebron

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Observers:

Nili and Hagit (reporting and photographing); Translation: Hanna Kahana

Jul-27-2015

Morning

Wewere in Susiya.

Hereunder are three links to film strips where we photographed Azaam Nawaj'a (Nasser's uncle).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywtxgkmdVWY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1TCLaC5Bug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1TCLaC5Bug

The bulldozers are not in the area and the uncertainty bothers the people. The reportage of this morning in the "Ha'Aretz" newspaper lifted their spirits up a bit. Perhaps the international pressure causes them to try discard the idea of evacuation. If only!

Hebron

Abed is in mourning – his niece died yesterday night and he and guests sit next to the house. The shop is closed. At the CP passers-by are detained but for longer than five minutes.

Yesterday, Tish'a be-Av, was an unusual Jewish day at the Cave of Machpela – and there were clashes during the prayers…not something people are not used to in Hebron. Among the praying people above the grocery owner tells us that great crowds came out of Kiryat Arba to pray at the Cave of Machpela – and that the army was around all the time – but that there were no unusual events.

At Tel Rumeida above we met a young Palestinian woman who stood opposite a soldier and didn't move. The soldier talked with the police and it took us some time to understand what had happened.

It turned out that at half past ten (we arrived there at half past eleven) the soldiers stopped a young Palestinian who was without an ID card and detained him for investigation in order to ascertain whether it was the same man who yesterday threw a glass bottle on the soldiers at the Tarpat CP. The army has cameras there. The young man phoned his sister and asked her to come and bring his ID card with her. She arrived with her brother's ID card and gave it to the soldiers. They took him for inverstigation without telling her where they took him to and for how long. She was very worried. The Muchtar of Tel Rumeida (the one that is on the photo) came to be with her, and in the meantime the TIPH soldiers arrived too. The woman amongst them who spoke fluent Arabic began taking care of the matter – as the soldiers refused to talk to us. The procedure is that a Palestinian may inquire what happened to a member of his family only at the DCO. The soldiers of the TIFH did not know the procedure and it took time to explain it to them. We did not photograph the woman nor the TIFH policemen. Most of the time there was only one soldier there and he called for reinforcement. The soldier who arrived photographed us and and the our car number plate.

Location Description

Hebron

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According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints info-icon , manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.

Checkpoints observed in H2:

Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station

Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs

תעודת ההוקרה שקיבל אדריס המנוח מהישוב היהודי בחברון כשהציל יהודי מלינץ כשטעה בדרך

Mar-27-2024

Michal Tsadik

The certificate of appreciation that the late Idris received from the Jewish settlement in Hebron when he saved a Jew who had lost his way from lynch

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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-10-2024

Muhammad D.

Sa'ir - Yael and Ahmad

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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.