South Hebron HIlls - a settler takes his flock into Abu Safi’s private land

Place:

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Observers:

Samdar Becker with Mohammad; Translator: Natanya

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Nov-3-2022

Morning

Susiya – Nasser and Smadar picking olives

Photo:

Muhammad D

A visit to Abu Safi and his family -- Route 317.

The children were on vacation from school and at home. The 15-year-old grandson from

Samu’ also arrived and helped with the herd.

In all the previous visits we had heard about the invasion of the herd of Israel Kaplan, the settler who owns the nearby farm, into Abu Safi's territory. This time we actually saw it happen.

Kaplan's shepherd arrived early in the morning with the herd to the hill, which belongs to the Abu Safi family (Abu Safi's parents), and grazed there for hours.

We managed to see the herd and the shepherd and took pictures. He saw us coming with the jeep and stayed up the hill..

We stayed there for about an hour, we had an early lunch with the family, we talked about the difficulty of living like this every day.

As we started to drive back the shepherd who had been watching began to walk down with the flock towards the Abu Safi family's residential area, which meant that our visit had deterred him. (Abu Safi confirmed this to us).

This is the ugly occupation: I am here and you will be deported.

I must point out that it really upset us and affected me. For hours I didn't stop thinking and feeling how unjust and cruel it was

From there we went to Susia, to Nasser Nauwega and his family who were working in the olive grove near their house (to the left of the playground).

The children who, as mentioned, were on vacation, played and it was clear that this playground is so important. Even this little bit the settlers of Sosia like to try to destroy from time to time.

Nasser receives a report from the association (opposite Hebron, on highway 60) about a family that was gathering olives, settlers attacked them, and three brothers were badly beaten and taken to the hospital in Hebron. The case was later published by 'Yesh Din' and took up a lot of space on social networks. I managed to help with the harvest (unfortunately) for a shorter time than I would have helped.

Another visit under the shadow of the occupation.

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-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.