South Hebron Hills - Sansana (Meitar) CP is closed to Palestinians

Place:

Sansana (Meitar Crossing)

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

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Updates during Corona

Settler-colonists deny Palestinians access to their own grazing grounds

School Children

Observers:

Muhammad and Daphna; Translator: Natanya

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Aug-16-2020

Morning

The Meitar checkpoint is packed with cars and people on the Palestinian side. This morning the police and the border police have blocked the crossing apparently because of the corona. It is Sunday, and thousands got stuck at the checkpoint while buses and vehicles got stuck on the Israeli side, without passengers.

When we passed at 9:40, the checkpoint itself was empty, but hundreds, maybe even thousands, who were stuck, waited along the road and fence, exposed to the sun in the hope of getting to work. It was a terrible sight! Even Muhammad, who passes by there every day, has never seen such a sight. Never! Some talked to soldiers, probably tried to persuade them to let them pass.

We turned onto Road 317, in the direction of Susiya, opposite are the signs of a new settlement (?).

Azzam and his family were not at home because his mother had died, so the whole family was not at home.

At Tuwani we met Basel..According to him, near Zeituna there is a new settlement and on the other side, the illegal outpost Havat Maon is building a new farm. They were given a grazing allotment, the army helped them to take over the Palestinian grazing areas. The Palestinians and their flocks are pushed away and thus their livelihood is taken from them !!!

Near the outpost Havat Maon, another tower for soldiers is being built, and there have been demolitions in the area/

Since there is no coordination with the PA, the soldiers are not escorting the children to school and a student was attacked by settlers but managed to escape.

There are those who call on the administration, or the army for help, but the soldiers do not know the general's order and obey the people of the settlement ....

In Jewish Susiya, the settlers built an illegal building. The army came to stop the construction, but did not confiscate their tools, as they do those of the Palestinians.

We also met Salem from B'Tselem, who told about a stolen village near the Asfar settlement, where they do go at all because they are afraid of the settlers and the soldiers help the settlers ... Muhammad will try to get there this week.

We returned in the direction of the Meitar checkpoint, it was already noon and there were still many dozens waiting, in the field, in the heat, maybe they would be able to enter Israel to work .... (Some apparently gave up and returned home).

Difficult sights ....

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

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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Meitar

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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.

Sansana (Meitar Crossing)

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The checkpoint is located on the Green Line and serves as a border crossing between Israel and the West Bank. It is managed by the Border Crossing Authority of the Defense Ministry. It is comprised of sections for the transfer of goods as well as a vehicle checkpoint (intended for holders of blue identity cards, foreign nationals or diplomats and international organizations). Passing of Palestinians is prohibited, except for those with entry permits to Israel. Palestinians are permitted to cross on foot only. The crossing has a DCO (District Coordination Office), a customs unit, supervision, and a police unit.

In the last year, a breach has been opened in the fence, not far from the crossing. This breach is known to all, including the army. There does not appear to be any interest in blocking it, probably as it permits needed Palestinian workers without the bureaucratic permits to get to work in Israel. Food stalls and a parking area economy have been created, but incidents of violent abuse by border police have also been recorded.

Updated April 2022