Hebron, South Hebron Hills, Susiya

"You are not be be here"

A Givati soldier rushes towards us with a black kippa sticking out from under his beret. “You are not allowed here”, he says to Idris, who has come down from his home in Shuhada street to meet us at the spring next to the base which is being destroyed.

“Why?” we ask. “Because” is the answer by the soldier who has only been there a few days and has no idea of what he is doing except that Idris is a Palestinian.

“I have a blue ID card, I am an Israeli citizen”, says Idris and shows the soldiers his ID.  Embarrassed and confused the soldier returns the ID and retreats.

There is no apartheid in Hebron, we are told. But we see with our own eyes what there is.

Idris came down for a few minutes only because of the Corona in the city so as to receive a donation for a widow with six children who has been left with nothing.

Hebron of the settlers is full of posters supporting Ben Gvir. It is now a double ghost city. 

We went to meet Nasser Nawaj'a from Susiya. He is very active and participates and assists the residents of the area in their fight against the settlers who attack them all the time. This  in addition to the demolition done by the Civil Administration and the army.

Everything has been reported and written in recent weeks... On Saturday, as was reported, there was a serious incident with a  man wounded by settlers of Mitzpe Yair.

Nasser is busy on the phone all the time and barely turns to us.

It turns out that near Mount Amasa there is a settlement of َQaryut  (Garian according to the locals). About 20 shepherds with a large flock of sheep were grazing there. They also started building a corral to keep the sheep. The civil administration  arrived and claimed that because the Palestinians had crossed the Green Line, they confiscated 300 sheep and took them with trucks that they had brought with them. The question is wither they had any proof that the green line had been crossed. but who cares?…

The shepherds hurried to the place and began calling the flock with the sounds they know and as the sheep heard the whistles and various sounds they rushed to them. So the civil administration, probably not knowing how to do deal with the situation,  said that they would not confiscate the sheep. But the Palestinians would have to pay the costs of what seems to be a completely unnecessary and maybe even illegal  operation, the trucking and transportation expenses of  11,000 shekels. One of the shepherds, 19-year-old,  was arrested anyway because the settlers claimed that they saw  him picking up a stone. Nasser was busy all this time  talking to lawyers about our case and attempting  to release him from the court in  Be'er Sheva.

When we arrived in Susiya we saw the Palestinian flags which has been hoisted and left when Netanyahu in a helicopter had visited there two days earlier for a ceremony which was supposed to be in honour of upgrading the antiquities site in Susiya (as stated in the invitation which Michal also received). Probably more a political gesture before the elections than a true ceremony.

There were a number of Palestinians demonstrating against him even though the entire area was declared a closed military area and there were also large forces. The Palestinians were not allowed out of their houses or into the area

Mosi Raz and Tamar Zandberg visited them that day.

There is no quiet there or no day without something unpleasant happening,

And we can only use our words and reports to support them.