Sha'ab al-Butum - constant harassment by settlers and soldiers
Again, a shift dedicated to the Jabarin family, in Sha’ab al-Butum. This is an extended family: parents, sons and daughters-in-law with children who are frequently threatened by the settlers of Mitzpe Avigayil. But in recent months, like mushrooms after the rain, more settlements are popping up, surrounding them from all sides.
A settlement means a truck or a bus that is turned into a residence and next to it a shed, a tent, etc., and the people who live in them attack the shepherds with their herds and threaten and curse and drive them away.
The people there repeatedly sow and make a[N1] vegetable garden, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, peppers, corn and spice plants. Again, and again, the homes are renovated, stairs are poured to improve the way of access to them. Zumud at its best.
According to them, they are continually harassed so there are always volunteers who also spend the night with them. Apart from the Mitzpe Avigayil settlement, which is too close, you can see from an aerial distance of 5 km, the Ma’on farm on the hill. We brought them again basic food items thanks to your donations. Also, a lot of clothes, shoes and games that are constantly collected by Smadar who has long since become the address in this matter where she lives.
This time, too, we met a volunteer from England and a German volunteer who sleep there at night. They repeatedly emphasize that their presence deters the settlers and keeps them away. And yet the family members say that yesterday 7 soldiers came, walked around for about 3 hours at their place and around them.
In their opinion, they were looking for greenhouse equipment donated to them by Erela and her friends the day before yesterday. Again, so that they could rebuild their ruins. Fortunately, they found nothing.
They are convinced that this was the main reason for these searches because they saw that the settlers were watching them and immediately called the army who interrogated the volunteers. They asked for explanations for their stay and checked their passports. They were told that they have no reason to stay here (there is a video in which you can clearly see the faces of the soldiers and hear their questions about it, but I will not send it).
They also say that there is a new settler from Mitzpe Yair who has settled not far from them, who keeps coming to destroy the fence that they put up. They filmed him, but he ran away. In their opinion, all this disturbing activity is to make them afraid to be there. The father of the family says that when the settlers arrive, they try to push them into areas where they think there are no cameras in them and they can then interrogate the Palestinians without being seen.
They don’t know that everything is networked. He repeats and emphasizes that the greenhouses they received were the main search target. They try to disrupt and destroy any activity that signifies restoration and strengthening.
I have a feeling that the sentence from the Passover Haggadah: “When they torture him, he will multiply and break out” is well understood by these “dear” Jews.
Sha'ab al-Butum
See all reports for this place-
This is one of the small Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills, near the settlement of Mitzpe Avigail.
Since the outbreak of the October 7, 2023 war, settler violence against residents has escalated greatly, as in the entire Palestinian community. This violent conduct receives full backing from the state and full cooperation from the IDF. The goal is to make the lives of the Palestinian residents miserable and make them abandon and leave.
The population consists of mostly shepherds who peacefully seek to cultivate the land and graze their sheep, whom the settlers treat as a dangerous enemy. They prohibit them from any movement related to herding sheep and cultivating the land and harm everything: trampling crops, breaking olive trees, smuggling herds, scaring shepherds, conducting wild searches of houses, shouting, cursing and threatening - at all hours of the day. "We are Besieged, but will not move from our land," says Lila G. New settlements are springing up around them. At first it's a bus or a truck that turns into residential buildings, on top of which every week more residential buildings and animal sheds are added. With the open encouragement of the current government, Jewish terrorism is raising its head, with authority and permission. The settlers have received army uniforms and weapons, and no one is stopping them. The police, who are supposed to protect the Palestinians from the settlers' riots, sometimes respond to calls for help, but in practice they don't do much more than provide them with a report, and they are required to go and file a complaint in Kiryat Arba Settlemnt police station . Though the settlers' identities are known, they are !never arrested.
-
South Hebron Hills
See all reports for this place-
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
-
