Hebron, South Hebron Hills, Wed 18.1.12, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
A bulldozer is blocking the access points to Highway 317 from the adjoining fields, even though most of the road has long been closed.
We drove up to a-Tuwwani, to Jum’a’s house, and heard the sad stories of how the settlers from Ma’on abuse the villagers – for example, how the girls fear to cross the road out of the village and must be accompanied by the Italian volunteers who have cameras to document the incidents and also protect the residents from the abuse and the hardships caused by the settlers.
Jum’a asks Ar’ella and Ehud to send someone to help him set up a tank (for sheep and goat dung) to generate methane that can be used for heating, to generate electricity and for cooking.
Jum’a pays NIS 15/cubic meter for water; his tank holds 100 cubic meters.
We drove to the protest tent in Hebron. We heard the story of Hana Abu Heikhal, Baruch Marzel’s neighbor, whose car had been set afire for the fifth time, andwhose brother’s car had been set afire once (a total of 6 incidents). She stays in the tent because she’s handicapped and has no way to get home without a vehicle, and certainly can’t lug a shopping basket.
Hana and her sister live in Tel Rumeida, in a 1300 square meter house. In 1996 settles offered her a huge amount of moneyfor her land but she firmly refused.
In 2009 a settler reported that Hana isn’t living in the house. She was arrested and released. Hana demanded that the soldiers who drove her to jail take her back home, and they did.
She concluded her story by saying that’s she’s stuck like a bone in the throat of the settlers, and they have shut everything down in Shuhada Street and Al Katrina Street. All the shops and commerce that once existed in the Tel Rumeida area have been paralyzed; life is difficult and unbearable. They promise to demonstrate peacefully, like all the other protest tents throughout the world.
Hana is the first person ever to have set up a protest tent in Hebron – perhaps the first anywhere in the Palestinian Authority
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
Leah ShakdielApr-8-2025Hebron: A sign advertising a tempting real estate
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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
Yael ZoranMay-22-2025The bumpy road to Ata's house
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