South Hebron Hills, Susiya

Place:

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Observers:

Muhammad, Semadar and Ariela (repoting and photographing); Translator: Natanya

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Aug-20-2019

Morning

Every thing is wilting

Photo:

Ariela Slonim

We decided to visit Azzam in Susiya. Since 1986 Azzam and his family have been living in a tent together with the other families who were deported from where they lived, which was defined as an archaeological site. Despite living in a tent, the tent environment is always well maintained. He turns garbage into pots of gold in old tires, which he cuts in various shapes. Concrete is poured between the rocks so that in winter water will not enter the tent and the concrete is filled with colored marbles.

When we arrived this time everything looked different. I asked him what happened and he sadly replied that this year's water consumption started a month earlier. He has several wells that, according to him, the settlers have clogged and sometimes also with carcasses. The price of water also depends on whether the water comes in a tractor or truck and also depends on the filling point. Sometimes their price can reach up to NIS 43 per cubic meter. By comparison, the price of water for Israeli citizens ranges from NIS 7 to NIS 12 per cube of water. 25 meters from Azzam's tent, the water pipe goes to the settlement but not to Azzam.

We sat down with Azzam and his lovely wife and we enjoyed the wonderful air which, for the time being, they do not yet have to pay for and some way will be found to make him pay for that too. I asked him what happened to his beautiful flower pots and he replied that he was watering them with water left over after washing the dishes. Because this water is also used sparingly, everything is withered.

Azam had a herd of 300 sheep and today he has only 100 sheep left because he had to sell them for a living. It is so difficult because of the water prices to deal with watering the flocks or watering the few crops he has grown around the tent. Azzam in his beautiful language said that he felt like a person connected to the CPR devices and once the devices were cut off the person would die. The almond tree has dried up.

The settlement nearby is emerald green.

Resolution 64/292 adopted at the UN General Assembly on July 28, 2010, the right to water and sanitation was recognized as part of human rights. The right to water is a constant in international human rights law.

"The Human Right to Water is Essential to Life in Human Dignity" [United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Rights]

And according to international law, as an occupying state, we must not prevent residents of the occupied state the minimum means of subsistence. Certainly the right to water is a very important means of subsistence. Azzam's definition of his way of life is so correct.

The water supply which is part of the harassment of the Palestinians, we are constantly witnessing, cutting off water pipes, plugging wells, filling of places which were once filled with rainwater and which are now filled with concrete, things we have witnessed and reported on, are probably a means of expelling the people from their land. Even in Susiya's case, Pliah Albec recognized the existence of the village and that the land was owned by the villagers. They own the lands on which they sit.

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.