Hebron, South Hebron Hills
Two days after Rabbi Levinger’s funeral.
Nothing out of the ordinary at the Meitar checkpoint and on Highway 60.
Only the balloon over the emplacement overlooking the road to Nagohot reminds us that Big Brother is watching.
A new, gleaming paved road winds up to the emplacement.
Hebron
“Hazon David,” the improvised synagogue built on private land is still destroyed. Let’s hope it won’t be rebuilt.
Curve 160
A Border Policewoman highhandedly detains every young man going through the checkpoint. They’re quickly released .
Many detainees at the Pharmacy checkpoint. We waited a few minutes and they were released.
The members of the Shaharbati family from Shuhadeh Street are licking the wounds they suffered from Rav Levinger’s funeral procession.
The Jewish pogromchiks, true to his legacy, cut all the water pipes that are connected to the municipal water system and which rise to the water tanks each family has on its roof.
[They have running water only a few days a week; on the other days their water comes from their storage tanks.]
Our friend Z. shows us partial repairs of the pipes and many leaks they haven’t yet been able to fix. He shows us broken stairs and reports that the rioters entered the house and threw a TV on the floor, breaking it and the stair. He says the soldiers saw everything and did nothing. A more senior officer who arrived told them to file a complaint with the police, and they did. “Do you know why the soldiers do nothing?” asks a neighbor. “Why?” “Because then they won’t receive sandwiches and hot drinks from the settlers” he replies. Whether or not that’s true doesn’t matter, it’s additional testimony to the symbiosis between the army and the settlers.
Hebron
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According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints, manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.
Checkpoints observed in H2:
- Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
- Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
- The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
- Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station
Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Muhammad D.May-13-2026Hebron - Request for compensation for land expropriation
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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-13-2026Michal with O.
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