Susiya - We will not leave. We will die on this land.
Purpose of the trip: To give a donation from Sylvia to the residents of Yatta.
A visit to the couple Najah and Abu Saddam who live on the outskirts of Susiya, and who “earned” a very violent visit from their neighbour, Shem Tov, and his thugs.
The route: We left around nine. The road to the Meitar crossing was extremely congested. It was the eve of the holiday, and the Bedouins of the Negev did their shopping in the West Bank, in Dahariya and in Hebron. They have imposed a boycott on the merchants of Beer Sheva! A counter-reaction to the manifestations of racism in Beersheba and the failure to stand in solidarity with them in the face of the demolitions of houses and villages, without providing any response to the population that is left, literally, without a roof, as happened in a-Sar for example.
At the Meitar crossing, which has been empty since October 7, we met a driver who agreed to transfer the donation. Further along the way we saw a caravan mounted truck, that must have been meant for one of the illegal settlements that are springing up everywhere. The maintenance of the dirt mounds on the sides of the road continues as usual. We sadly passed by what was once the magnificent farm of Abu Safi, and nothing remains of it. And at Zanuta, the bulldozers are coming up, and the settlers are coming up and taking over what used to be the large village nearby. How optimistic I was on my previous visit when the residents returned following the High Court of Justice decision. At that time, the Palestinian Authority provided fodder for the farmers. “We will not leave,” they shouted.
At the couple Najah and Abu Saddam in Susiya:
We have already heard what was done to them on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday last, when four thugs with iron bars arrived and broke the windows and beat the woman who as a result needed treatment in a hospital and punctured the water tank. They say that between them and their neighbour, Shem Tov, the invader, there had been good neighbourly relations. “We gave him some of our sheep’s milk.” But since October 7th, all that has ended. “Go to Yatta,” he shouts. (The late Abu Safi also relied on neighboruly relations with Israel Kaplan until he was offended by a carcass thrown at the entrance to his cave and all the rest.) Najah shows the marks of the beatings on her arm. She sent her children to Yatta. One of the children was arrested after he had tried to defend her and they had had to pay a fine for him to be released.
The sheep are also a problem, because they cannot take them out to pasture on their land. And we still stand in amazement at the cultivation of the garden and the olive orchard, and the ornamental trees and flowers. And all this, of course, almost without irrigation and drip irrigation. They buy the water, and they cannot access the well because the masters of the land have taken it over. And you? I ask. We will not leave. We will die on this land.
We left behind bundles of clothes that Smadar collects and basic products that are so needed, from donations.
When we were already on our way back, Najah called and said that two settlers were back and hanging out in their yard. We saw a pair of young volunteers as a protective presence roaming the village.
At the Meitar crossing, on the way back, our vehicle underwent a thorough inspection, but I was spared. Advantages of age.
Location Description
South Hebron Hills
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South Hebron Hills
South Hebron Hills is a large area in the West Bank's southern part.
Yatta is a major city in this area: right in the border zone between the fertile region of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants.
The surrounding villages are called Masafer 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, many 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 withholding 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. Roadblocks 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
Michal TsadikJul-25-2025The interior of the burnt house
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Susiya
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Susiya 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.
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