Maktal Umm Salem - Israel Kaplan's sheep ate all the seeds
Route 60:
A military jeep is standing by the side of the road at the entrance to Zanuta. Reminder: Zanuta was abandoned more than a month ago, due to threats, harassment and violence by the settlers in the illegal sheep farms that were founded in the area in recent years.
Route 317:
A checkpoint was set up at the intersection from Route 60, which includes a military vehicle whose role is to check all Palestinian vehicles heading to Road 317.
We went to the small village of Mufaqara, located opposite the settlement of Avigayil. A number of families scattered in the area live in caves and very basic buildings in difficult living conditions.
Fadel, the caveman, reports settlers across the road watching the grounds of Mufaqara and their house and cave and their fields. Fadel says that a few days ago a surveyor came to inspect the area and all the lands in the area of Mufaqara were measured and marked.
The settlers, probably from Avigail, went further and brought a yellow caravan that was placed close to their territories. Fadel says that he does not come up to work the land and is afraid to go to his lands because both the settlers and the soldiers drive him away.
Mufaqara is actually surrounded on three sides by the settlement of Avigayil, Havat Ma’on and the relatively new farm, Daroma Farm.
While we are there, Amar Abu-Awwad calls us. Amar left his compound in Maktal Umm Salem due to the threats and violence of the settlers from Israel Kaplan’s Mikne Yehuda farm. He set up his encampment at the southwestern end of the town of Samu’ (area B), near the encampment of Saleh, who also left his encampment in the Upper Wadada area (south of Meitar Farms), due to violence by those settlers (well, also those of Meitarim Farms).
Amar reports that the Israel Kaplan family’s shepherds harass them even in their new place of residence. The lands of the Abu Awwad family are cultivated and seeds were sown in them for the summer, during the sowing process they scattered the vegetable seeds, covered them with a little soil, and waited for the seeds to germinate. Unfortunately, Israel Kaplan’s sheep came to the family’s land and ate all the seeds. The seeds went, the sheep had no food , the livelihood went.
Amar and 7 other family members arrived in the area to drive the sheep away, after a few moments the soldiers arrived and arrested two of the eight family members, claiming that one of them had raised a stone against a settler, and the other wanted to steal a weapon from a soldier. Amar claims that everything is a lie and there was no violence on their part. The settlers want to remove them, even though it is area B, which they, in the meantime, the settlers cannot control.
Yesterday, the detention of the two detainees was extended by eight days. One law for the Israelis and another law for the Palestinians.
Note: We heard and told the same story (without pictures) also from the mouth of Saleh who evacuated from Wadada, now lives near Amar, and also participated in the attempt to expel the settlers from the scattered area.
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.May-13-2025Susiya - at Ahmad and Halima Nawaja'a
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