Sha'ab al-Butum - The olives were not harvested for fear of the settlers
The plan was to reach Susiya, to the family of Ahmad and Halima Nawaj’ah, who had experienced another night of nightmares in the attack by their neighboring settlers.
We bought them groceries and also filled the car with many bags of children’s clothes, mainly those received from the local communities.
But suddenly Halima calls and tells us: “Don’t come! The police are here and still taking statements. And there is a law that anyone who does not live here is forbidden to be in the area. The activists from overseas who sleep here have also been sent away.”
| 23.10.2025
Michal (reporting and photographing) with Muhammad
The plan was to reach Susiya, to the family of Ahmad and Halima Nawaj’ah, who had experienced another night of nightmares in the attack by their neighboring settlers. We bought them groceries and also filled the car with many bags of children’s clothes, mainly those received from the local communities. But suddenly Halima calls and tells us: “Don’t come! The police are here and still taking statements. And there is a law that anyone who does not live here is forbidden to be in the area. The activists from overseas who sleep here have also been sent away.” So we changed our plan and went to Sha’ab al-Butum, to the Jabarin family, who also called us because of the constant harassment by Amichai Shilo. The number of people in his settlement from the past year is growing, in addition to the “veterans” from Mitzpe Avigail, who also come all the time. A white “civilian” van with a military license plate arrived on the winding road. When it approached us, all its occupants covered their faces with scarves, so that only their eyes were visible. They signaled us to stop. We stopped. They looked at us, mumbled something and allowed us to continue – probably thanks to our “kashrut” faces, Muhammad and I. Later, we saw there, in the distance, on the road to the new settlement of Amichai Shilo, a fairly active movement of such vehicles. They did not go near the Jabarin family’s place of residence. There are overseas volunteers from England and from Denmark – a presence that adds confidence to the people and helps them in every way. The family members say that almost every day, at different times, the people of Avigail and Amichai Shiloh come with their flocks. With them are also boys aged 13-14, with long earlocks and large kippahs. They come right up to the threshold of their house and shout: “Go! Go away! Go to Yatta!” The sheep eat everything. Their olive plot has been destroyed, because whatever we don’t eat – the settlers break with their hands and give to the sheep to eat. “We didn’t harvest this year,” they say. They are not allowed to approach this plot, nor their pomegranate plot – there they have about 40 trees. They were not cared for or picked either. “We tried to get closer,” says the father of the family, “and then the settlers came and expelled us. Since then, we haven’t dared to get closer.” At night they arrive with their cars and ATVs, stand at a distance, turn on their headlights and dazzle. When I asked if they call the police, Leila replied:
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Location Description
Sha'ab al-Butum
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This is one of the small Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills, near the settlement of Mitzpe Avigail.
Since the outbreak of the October 7, 2023 war, settler violence against residents has escalated greatly, as in the entire Palestinian community. This violent conduct receives full backing from the state and full cooperation from the IDF. The goal is to make the lives of the Palestinian residents miserable and make them abandon and leave.
The population consists of mostly shepherds who peacefully seek to cultivate the land and graze their sheep, whom the settlers treat as a dangerous enemy. They prohibit them from any movement related to herding sheep and cultivating the land and harm everything: trampling crops, breaking olive trees, smuggling herds, scaring shepherds, conducting wild searches of houses, shouting, cursing and threatening - at all hours of the day. "We are Besieged, but will not move from our land," says Lila G. New settlements are springing up around them. At first it's a bus or a truck that turns into residential buildings, on top of which every week more residential buildings and animal sheds are added. With the open encouragement of the current government, Jewish terrorism is raising its head, with authority and permission. The settlers have received army uniforms and weapons, and no one is stopping them. The police, who are supposed to protect the Palestinians from the settlers' riots, sometimes respond to calls for help, but in practice they don't do much more than provide them with a report, and they are required to go and file a complaint in Kiryat Arba Settlemnt police station . Though the settlers' identities are known, they are !never arrested.
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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 TsadikJan-29-2026Umm al-Khair - a security risk for Carmel settlers
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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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