Susiya - Settlers Yom Tov Slutsky and Amishav Peled invaded the residential compound of several families, including Bilal Hamdan.
We went to visit our friends and support them after the unpleasant event of the night before.
On the way, we again brought money again to someone on behalf of Sylvia and friends.
Then, at the Dura al-Fawwar junction, we met someone from the Jadallah family who is besieged in Fuqeiqis. We could not get to them. We met someone who could bring the money to them thanks to the opening of the Dura checkpoint. We gave her the money, both because they can buy necessities cheaper there and because we could not get there.
We continued to Susiya.
Many volunteers and journalists from all over the world came because of the attack on the Oscar-winning director Bilal Hamdan and his injury by settlers and his arrest at an unknown location. Both Nasser and Bassel agreed to speak on camera and tell the truth about what has been happening there for a long time, with the latest incident being just part of the settlers’ rampage throughout the year since 7.10.23.
We write about this all the time.
And indeed, last night, the settlers Yom Tov Slutsky and Amishav Peled and their coterie arrived, invaded the residential area of several families, including Hamdan’s, just a few minutes before they were about to gather for the Iftar meal. They shouted, threw stones and attacked the Palestinians violently.
The police, who were called by the Palestinians, as agreed, chose to believe the settlers’ version, even though everything was happening in the Palestinians’ homes and on their land and everything was being filmed and monitored.
They arrested Hamdan in front of his wife and young children, claiming that he attacked them and took him into custody. They didn’t know where he was all night.
When we arrived, they still didn’t know where he was, but the entire media world was abuzz with the identity of the arrested attacker.
As Nasser says in the video, this is a continuation of a series of violent incidents against them, with attempts to demand proof of ownership of these areas and to make them leave their homes and lands.
At the time of writing, we learned that he was released later on Tuesday and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Hebron.
Again, all our questions about these attacks, these false arrests, and the constant harassment remain unanswered. But from the shouts and curses they hear there, it is clear that the plan to expel and take over areas for construction and expand settlements under the pretext of historical ownership by the people of Israel.
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
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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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