The colonist Amichai Shilo and his men harass day and night
We sit with I’ and his wife, and they tell us about the daily harassments at all hours by the colonist Amichai Shilo and his young helpers.
Sometimes they arrive with and ATV and simply ride around, fast; at other times they ride a donkey or come on foot. They arrive with their flocks and eat everything the Palestinians sowed and grew in their own fields.
The harassers come for 30 or 40 minutes, and at times for a longer period of time. When they come without their flock and just wonder around, they get very close to the entrances to people’s yards. A week ago, they came and harassed as they are wont, and entered really near the home itself. I’s sons – M., A. and H. summoned the police in order to complain, and the policemen came and arrested… the complainers. They were shackled, blindfolded and taken to the Susya base, claiming they had thrown stones at the colonists. From Susya they were taken to the Kiryat Arba police station and simply detained. When I’ came to release his sons, he was forced to pay 2000 shekel as bail. He waited in vain for three hours. They were taken again to the Susya Base only at 1 a.m., and taken off the vehicle mid-way. Luckily their phones and IDs were returned, so they could report to their family, who came and took them home.
The policemen repeat that colonists are allowed to come very close to the house with their sheep, without the police being alerted.
According to I’, colonists from Mitzpe Avigail which is nearer the Palestinians’ home do not come there. The assailants come only from the new outposts that popped up in the area in the past two years, especially Amichai Shilo.
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
Muhammad D.Jul-12-2026Smadar with Taleb on duty at Qawawis
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