Susiya - harassment by settlers

Place:

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Tarqumiya

Umm Al Kheir

Tags:

House Demolition

Settler-colonists injure Palestinians body, soul and property

Observers:

Tami H. (Reporting), Leah S., Muhammad. Editor: Mira Balaban; Translator: Natanya

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May-14-2023

Morning

סוסיא - מתנחלים מהתנחלות סוסיא בדרכם לתקיפה

Susiya – settlers from the settlement Susiya on their way to attack

Photo:

A Palestinian resident

hSusiya - with Nasser Nawaj'a

Photo:

Muhammad D

Susiya - with Azzam

Photo:

Muhammad D

We went to Susiya, having heard a report on what is happening in the area, from Nasser Nawaj’ah (B'Tselem investigator ), and Azzam, born in Susiya.

Again, a group of stories which testifyy to the increasing intensity of the effort to push out the native inhabitants of Masafer Yatta.

Nasser’s stories:

The situation is difficult. With the end of Ramadan, they returned to the process of demolishing buildings. They destroyed a concrete floor of a warehouse for building materials, a fence and a room, in A -Zawaydin, to the northeast of Umm al-Kheir (on the way to the Umm Daraj base).

In Khirbet A-Taiba, south of Tarkumiya (east of the Adora settlement, near highway 35), soldiers destroyed 12 water tanks and uprooted 200 olive trees, claiming that this is state land.

Nasser mentions both the point of his report, and news from Mughayer al-Abid, which is east of Havat Ma'on. The army helps the settlers evict the Palestinian residents from a water well which belongs to them; Masked settlers attacked the Palestinian residents in their territories, forcing them to leave; The next morning, a Palestinian resident was arrested - he spent four days in jail and then was released on bail of NIS 4,000; A few days before, settlers arrived and killed two sheep; more and more …

Azzam’s stories:

We met him in his hut. He says that there is a demolition order for his hut because there is cement between the stones. They moved him from the old Susiya, expropriated the village lands, his plot and his house.

The photo was sent by Azzam.

Location Description

Tarqumiya

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The Tarqumiya Checkpoint is one of the largest and busiest checkpoints where people and goods cross into Israel. It is located on the Separation Barrier close to the Green Line, on Road 35 (connecting Beer Sheva and Hebron). It is run by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Crossings Administration with civilian secuirty companies running the day to day operations. The checkpoint is indeed open to vehicles in both directions 24/7, but Palestinians are prevented from crossing in vehicles, except in special cases.

MachsomWatch activists visit the checkpoint as it opens at 3:45 am, in order to observe the daily passage of nearly 10,000 Palestinian workers. The workers arrive from throughout the Southern West Bank. Our activists report on the tremendous overcrowding at this checkpoint; they have observed young men climbing and scrambling on the fences and roofs of the ‘access cages’. This is how the work day begins for those who ‘build the land of Israel’.

updated November 2019

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.

Um Al Hir

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A Palestinian village in the southern Hebron governorate, populated by five families. The Palestinian residents settled there decades ago, after Israel expelled them from the Arad desert and purchased the land from the residents of the Palestinian village of Yatta. The village suffers from the violence of nearby Carmel settlers, from water shortage and is subject to frequent demolition of buildings by the Civil Administration info-icon .