Mufaqara - "They want us to give up and leave here, but I'm not like the people of Zenuta, I stay here."
This time again in Mufaqara.
The Hamamde family is surrounded on all sides by new settlers, not only Mitzpe Avigail to the west and Maon and Havat Maon to the east, they constantly suffer from threats, harassment. On the way to them, the access roads are blocked and you can only get there via A-Tuwani.
On Highway 317, you can see that all the access roads to Samu’ are blocked.
The same goes for the entrances to Wadi Shahash and Imnainzil.
The entrances to Yatta are also either blocked by dirt and stones or by concrete blocks with yellow gates.
You can see the constant struggle between the local residents and the army. They keep opening roadblocks just to get there and live, and the authorities keep blocking them.
Fadel is desperate and exhausted. He says that two weeks ago, a settler stole a car from a man from Dirat and brought it to the Maon farm. The owner of the car called the police. This time they arrived and did their job, chasing the thief. The thief fled and left the car. The police both caught him and returned the car to its owner.
In retaliation, three settlers came on an ATV from Maon, masked, with two others wearing IDF uniforms, and began attacking Fadel and others, pulling out a gun, threatening and shouting: Go, go!
Fadel called the police and when the police arrived, the settler tried to tell the policeman that Fadel was attacking him. The policeman replied: You came to him, not him to you and ordered the settlers to leave, and that was that.
Fadel returned safely this time. This time the police did their job.
The new settler, whose name is Avihai, has various assistants with him and they, as mentioned, surround the Hamamde family and are constantly moving from side to side on his land, cursing in Arabic and making obscene gestures.
“I don’t talk to them. I don’t respond, but they are improving their Arabic a lot.”
He doesn’t have a camera. His request for a camera has not been answered so far. When we left him, we saw that cameras had been installed in the area around him, but he personally doesn’t have one.
He also tells about a complaint filed against him by settler Avihai, about threats and curses. Then they told him to come to the Kiryat Arba police station and since then he is not allowed to go down to his pastures with his sheep and work his plots. He has also a security prevention. So has his son from the beginning of the war.
“They want us to despair and leave here, but I am not like the people of Zanuta, I am staying here.”
These sentences are repeated everywhere. Zanuta became a symbol of surrender and concession. Although the court ruled that they were allowed to return to their village, they did not return because the ruling that allowed it forbade them from cultivating their land.
Such Israeli “justice.”
“Inshallah the war will end,” says Fadel.
But the settlers do not want to, they have not finished expelling all of us yet.”
Location Description
A-Tuwani
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A-Tuwani
The locals came to a-Tuwani during the 20th century from the village of Yatta. They settled in abandoned ruins, utilizing the arable land, pastures for grazing sheep and the abundance of natural caves for habitation. The residents who settled in the caves came from families who could not purchase land for houses in the mother villages, as well as shepherds who did not have enough land to graze. They were joined by clan members who quarreled with other families in the mother locality.
Some of the residents today live in concrete buildings built above the caves. In the area of the village are several water cisterns and an ancient water well called 'Ein a-Tuwani. Local residents are forced to buy water in containers and transport them through many road blocks to the village. With the help of international organizations, an electrical system was installed in the village. In the late 90s of the 20tTh century, an elementary school was established in the serving several small villages in the area.
In 2004, MachsomWatch began visiting and reporting from the Khirbet Tuwani cave village, which suffers badly from the settlers of nearby outposts, and especially from the extremist Ma'on outpost. . The settlers contaminate cisterns, poison the flocks and uproot trees.Particularly notable is the harassment of children from the surrounding villages on their way to school in a-Tuwani, so much so that military escort of children is required to separate them from the attackers (this was arranged following an initiative of the organization's members). In the past year, the escort has been without the vital presence of overseas volunteers.
Near a-Tuwani there are several families who have returned to the caves due to the incessant demolitions of the civil administration (as there is a total construction ban in all of area C). Destroyed are not only residential and agricultural buildings, but also water pipes, machinery. Even water cisterns are clogged up. a-Tuwani residents have created an association for non-violent demolition protests, but in the past year the army’s harsh harassment and settler violence have intensified and escalated. The incident of the small generator confiscation, which left a young man paralyzed, is one of many examples - any legitimate protection of property rights leads to violence and even shootings by the army and the civil administration.
Updated April 2022
Daphna JungMar-16-2025Simia: Farhan and his wife
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Imneizil
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Imneizil Located below the settlement of Beit Yatir near the Beit Yatir / Metsadot Yehuda checkpointhe, this village is part of the Palestinian settlements in the southern Hebron Mountains.Amnesiel has a school for the children of the area, also children of two clans from the Abu Qabita tribe who remained on the Israeli side of the Separation fence, along with some of the agricultural lands of Amnesiel. The women of MachsomWatch are monitoring the Metzsadot Yehuda checkpoint, and are in contact with the Abu Qabita family. We receive from them reports of prevention of entry and transfer of necessary goods.
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Masafer Yatta
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This is happening in Fire Area 918 in the South Hebron Hills
On the eve of Remembrance Day (the day before Israel Independence Day), the Israeli High Court decided on the transfer and expulsion of residents from 8 Palestinian communities in the area of Masafar Yata in the South Hebron Hills. Residents of the villages have been living under the threat of demolition, evacuation and expropriation since the IDF issued evacuation orders in 1999 based on the 1980's proclamation of their area of residence as a firing zone for IDF drills. None of the nearby settlements were included in this zone.The Masafer Yata Palestiniian villages retain a special lifestyle and ancient agricultural culture. They also posses a clear historical documentation that testifies to a Palestinian settlement in this area, generations before the establishment of Israel - long ago in the caves and in later times outside them.
Evacuating residents from the area means destroying these historic villages and leaving entire families (about 2,000 people, children, adults and the elderly) homeless. This is contrary to international law.
In June 2022, a firing drill has started, and life has become harder.
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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
Daphna JungMar-16-2025Simia: Farhan and his wife
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Zanuta
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Zanuta was a small rural Palestinian locality until its demolition. It was situated in the space around the town Dahariya in the South Hebron Hills, about a ten-minute ride from Meitar Checkpoint. There are documented remains of a large Byzantine settlement in the area. Since the Ottoman (Turkish Empire) period (1516-1917) Zanuta was documented as a locality of shepherds and farmers who live in the remains of the ancient structures and the residential caves near them.
Two individual ranches of colonists were created next to Zanuta: Meitarim (of the colonist Yinon Levi) to the east, and Yehudah (of the colonist Elyashiv Nachum) to the north. Endless attacks, harassments and attempt to chase away the Zanuta villagers have originated in these two outposts.
Until the expulsion, four families lived in the village: A-Samama, Al-Tel, Al Batat, and Al-Qaisia. Farming constituted their main economic activity and employed most of the villagers. The total area of the village is about 12,000 dunams, of which about 3,000 are tended, mostly with field crops.
This village has never had a master plan that would legitimize construction permits. The Civil Administration claimed it was too small and the distance to the next town, Dahariya, too great. For this reason, the Israeli authorities pressured the villagers to leave. The colonists did the job for them.
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