Sansana (Meitar Crossing), South Hebron Hills
Because of the Yom Kippur holidays and the ugly and racist experience of the previous two weeks, we decided this time to skip Hebron and go straight to Hursa to see the family whose house was seized by the “straw widow” procedure for building the pillbox in the grove.
We reached Hursa through Negohot. Beit Awa Junction is blocked, both in the direction ofEl Burj and to Beit Awa. According to residents of Hursa, the junction has been closed for two weeks and a bride ended up having to make her way on foot to her wedding.
When I asked if the army had left the place clean, I was told that the place was left full of debris, including the garden around the house where cans of food and other things had been thrown.
We visited Hursa a few times. We hardly saw any cars with Israeli license plates passing through the junction, and this includes army or police verhicles. Now that the pillbox has been established, there is a massive presence of army and police in the area, and the residents claim that every few hours they erect a checkpoint and stop cars and then remove the checkpoint. To create a new source of friction?
The Diwan has resumed functioning but its expansion has been stopped. The pictures show the house without the camouflage nets and the divan and above it the pillbox.
On our way back to the Meitar checkpoint we went to see the construction of the separation fence near Eshkolot. A bulldozer worked beside the wall, and the dense barbed wire glistened in the sun. As soon as we stopped to look and photograph, a civilian guard vehicle arrived and its passengers came out and one of them announced that we had to leave immediately. Also that so that we could not photograph him because it was an invasion of his privacy. He demanded to see if I had erased the pictures. He also demanded our details but we informed him that he had no authority to demand any such details from us. Finally we parted with a handshake but I still had a bad feeling.
In the following pictures the wall and fence.
Meitar checkpoint / Sansana
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Meitar Checkpoint / Sansana The checkpoint is located on the Green Line and serves as a border crossing between Israel and the West Bank. It is managed by the Border Crossing Authority of the Defense Ministry. It is comprised of sections for the transfer of goods as well as a vehicle checkpoint (intended for holders of blue identity cards, foreign nationals or diplomats and international organizations). Passing of Palestinians is prohibited, except for those with entry permits to Israel. Palestinians are permitted to cross on foot only. The crossing has a DCO / DCL / DCL / DCL (District Coordination Office), a customs unit, supervision, and a police unit. In the last year, a breach has been opened in the fence, not far from the crossing. This breach is known to all, including the army. There does not appear to be any interest in blocking it, probably as it permits needed Palestinian workers without the bureaucratic permits to get to work in Israel. Food stalls and a parking area economy have been created, but incidents of violent abuse by border police have also been recorded. Updated April 2022
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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
A Palestinian residentMay-12-2025A sheep carcass dumped by settler Shimon Atiya from the Shorashim farm near the school in Umm Qusa.
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