Beit Omar and Shoshala: clinging to the ancestral land
The Park Project
We left Rosh Ha-ayin at 9:30, heading directly to Bet Umar where we met with M., a very special young Palestinian. As a youth he resisted the occupation, was in prison and thus missed his years of high school studies. After leaving and living for a while abroad he married a Jewish woman with whom he had a daughter (who still lives with her mother in the US), returned to the West Bank and founded the organization known as “Freedom and Justice”. His ideology aims not for joint life but for joint resistance of the occupation. The organization’s main agenda is looking out for Palestinian-owned land.
M. says: “Israel took from Bet Umar and Al Arub land to the huge extent of 5300 dunams (Al Arub is a refugee camp built on Bet Umar land, populated by refugees from the Ashqelon – Majdal – area who escaped in 1948). Bet Umar’s population now numbers 19,000, and Al Arub 11,000. I understand that the most important thing is to create something for the inhabitants that would offer them hope, help them in their hardships under a cruel military occupation.” He decided to build a place where the residents of Bet Umar and surrounding villages could come for ‘rest and recreation’.
We went together to this immense project, that is presently under construction. With the donation funds collected by his organization, he himself planned a park lying on a huge area, where natural woods have been planted (the trees are still young), a swimming pool, large amphitheater, and special wing for physiotherapy are being built. At the center lies “The Forty maqam” – popular belief claims that 40 old men are buried there. Near it stands a huge olive tree, “the most ancient in Palestine”. The project is magnificent, inspiring and filled with hope, and we took our leave promising to visit again to see how it was coming along.
On our way we stopped for hummus at some local resturant and proceeded. In the previous report that Nurit wrote after our first visit at Shushala, she mentioned that “we heard the name of the village, Karyat Shushala, only after having climbed the hill and reaching the home of a brave family of farmers who have lived there for generations. Its land and home have been surrounded by the Jewish settler-colonies of Neve Daniel, and 16 years ago its outpost Sdeh Boaz, right in the heart of Shoshala, on the ancient Roman track between Jerusalem and Hebron.”
Shoshala is situated on a hilltop very near the main road to the Etzyon settler-colony bloc, but these colonies now make it impossible to reach the village by car from the main road. One must climb a very steep hill on foot. The few residents of Shushala who insist on living there reach it only on donkey- or horse back. We climbed on foot… I managed this difficult task thanks to the gracious help of Tal.
On our way we met a group of people who were listening to explanations, who turned out to be UN personnel working at Bethlehem, who had come to witness the unbearable situation in Shoshala. Again we heard the usual tales about the Neve Daniel security official who keeps trying to expel the Palestinian inhabitants, how at night soldiers enter through a hole in the settler-colony fence and harass them. They know that the point of all these harassments is to make them leave, but they are determined to hold on to their forefathers’ land. This time it was the granddaughter, 14-year old S., who speaks some Hebrew, and told us: “Israel is like a predator who wants to devour us, Palestinians”. She said this, and no more. In 2016 settler-colonists entered their small home, summoned the Israeli army who arrested the family’s son and freed him from prison only after a 5000 shekel fine was paid.
We entered the tiny house and were shocked at the poverty we met. There is nothing there except one bed and a pile of mattresses and blankets. How could they manage to pay such a sum? R., S.’s mother, tells us she has been living there for 20 years. They have planted olives and sowed vegetables, and bring water for irrigation on donkey back. She and her husband want their daughter to continue living there. They have only one daughter. R. says that until April there were more residents living in homes all around, but in April many soldiers came, went from house to house, destroying the toilets, the greenhouses where they grew vegetables, and ruined the only vehicle there (we saw it). “We shall not be moved” she says.
It began to get dark. We took our leave promising we’d come again. We descended slowly and reached Mustafa’s car waiting for us across the road. Traffic was heavy on our way so we made it home by about 8 p.m.
Etzion area / Gush Etzion
See all reports for this place-
Etzion Area / Gush Etzion is a group of Jewish settlements south of Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and Hebron. Attempts at Jewish settlement in the area began in 1927. 4 kibbutzim were established between 1943–1947 but were destroyed during the Battle of Gush Etzion during the War of Independence in 1948.
After the 1967 Six Day War, Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion was renewed, and since then another 14 settlements and 10 outposts have been established. According to the info-icon of the Civil Administration, Gush Etzion is now 7 times larger than its historic area, and the Jewish lands purchased before the evacuation in 1948 constitute less than 15% of the large settlement bloc of the Gush Etzion Council today, which Israel demands to annex in the permanent agreement with the Palestinians.
The Palestinian localities in the area are concentrated in enclaves, the largest of which is in the east - the Bethlehem area, which includes Beit Jala, al-Khader, Beit Sahur and more. To the west are settlements such as Husan, Nahalin, Al Jaba'a and Batir and small and ancient agricultural villages such as Shushahala, Khalat Sakaria and more. These are scattered on the last agricultural land left by the Palestinians in the area. In the 2000s, many illegal outposts sprang up, taking over private Palestinian land under the auspices of the administration and the army, trying in an extremely violent way to evict farmers from their land and homes and thus expand the settlements. Watch the video about the harsh reality in the Shushalah and Makam Nabi Daniel area.
During the 1990s, the new Road 60, most of which is forbidden to Palestinian traffic, was paved, and a separation wall was built next to it. Access to many of the Palestinian villages and agricultural lands in the area was blocked, and a buffer was created between the villages themselves as well as between them and the lands they owned. The layout of the settlements and the network of roads and checkpoints in the entire Etzion area indicate the intention to create a territorial and transportation continuum between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem.
Machsom Watch members have been active in the for many years. We talk to the Palestinians at intersections, DCOs, villages and Makamim (ancient Palestinian heritage sites) and try to publicize the looting, apartheid and violence they are experiencing. You can read about their activities in the attached reports.
in 2021, after many years of negotiations, the Civil Administration issued a new plan for the central village of Khirbet Bet Zakariya, including construction permits. The adjacent settlers protestated and asked the minister of defence to cancel the permits. Our members are in contact with the village and are trying to involve other organiztions and use public opinion and to stop this cancelation.
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