Sha'ab al-Butum - violent harassment by the settlers of Havat Ma'on, Mitzpe Yair and Yair Shikli
We went again to Sha’ab al-Butum to the Jabarin family. Again, because the harassment and threats from the settlers do not stop. They have the same difficulties as before.
We bought them food supplies thanks to your donations.
M., the father of the family, talks about what happened on Thursday night. About 20 settlers arrived in pickup trucks from Mitzpe Yair and Havat Ma’on settlements, first the new settler, opposite to their dwelling, Amihai Shiloh. Then four more settlers arrived. It seemed that they were organizing the event with him. Then M. called the police. They told him that they would arrive in five minutes. The settlers who were then near him heard this. The army arrived immediately. Then, the settlers fled.
It turns out that Attorney Qamar Mishraki also called the police, which expedited their arrival.
This time it drove the settlers away.
When the army arrived, they asked him to come out to meet them outside the house. He was afraid to go out and asked them to come to him and they came and searched the area until midnight. According to him, they thought the settlers were planning to come to his house.
This time, this is how the event ended.
After three days, on Sunday, a settler arrived with a bulldozer, loaded with a huge rock and tried to block the road between them and Sha’ab al-Butum’s school. He placed the rock near the water hole to signal the Palestinian shepherds not to approach the hole, to prevent them from taking their sheep to the water.
He says it was dark and foggy, so he couldn’t take pictures.
“This morning, we dared to go and fill up with water from there, and no one bothered us,” he says.
But every day, Amihai Shiloh and his herd of about 40 head get closer and closer to their plots. He feels like he is getting closer and closer on purpose to create a confrontation that will cause stones to be thrown at him. He always walks around with a drawn weapon.
It seems that he is trying to create reasons for shooting.
They do not react because they understand his intentions, do not approach him and do nothing so that he does not find reasons for friction.
Three weeks ago, he told, 2 people came and started shouting to get out of here, to leave like his neighbour, Abu Hani. They cursed him, they said to him, we will take you wherever you want, even to Jordan, we will just load you on a truck. Get out of here.
When he called the police, he was told to file a complaint.
The settlers shouted, cursed and left.
This is the situation, daily harassment and harassment.
Luckily, we have volunteers who sleep with us every night. There were two Americans tonight too. During the day, they are staying in A-Tuwani.
This time we encountered another problem which has not been mentioned and about which there are not enough reports. Leila’s sister, her 4 children, came from Arara in the Negev. It turns out that she is the fourth wife of a Bedouin, three Palestinian wives and one Bedouin. She was deported because they are illegal residents The Bedouin woman, for her reasons, reported them to the police, and then they were sued and deported. I saw the legal paperwork in her case. The “merciful” judge noted that she admitted to her “crime” and that she also had no criminal record, so she was only deported for a year and received a suspended sentence of one month. At the end of the year, her civil status will be discussed again. Leila says she will stay with us; she will not go to her father in Yatta. So now in this small building that until now had 15 people sleeping, now, over 20 people sleep every night. These are their lives.
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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Sha'ab al-Butum
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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.
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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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