Sha'ev el Bottom - Settlers in uniform destroy everything every night
This is an extraordinary vigil, first of its kind ever
My son Avishai has begun to work in the Beer Sheva Soroka Hospital, and is still shocked and worried about what happened and continues to take place since October 7th. He came home and was shocked to hear of my intention to hold a vigil in the South Hebron Hills. He asked, or rather demanded that I do not go there, this is irresponsible and a great risk these days, requesting that I consider him as well. Since I knew to what extent people there need our visits, we decided that I should go with Mohammad to the Hura supermarket, do all the shopping thanks to your donations, and then drive with him to the Meitar Checkpoint. From there Avishai would take me home while Mohammad would continue the vigil work on his own. I added bags of clothes that I had collected for the Palestinians and Mohammad took it all and drove to Sha’ab Al Botom without me.
In the video filmed by Mohammad one can see the havoc that settler-colonists left there. The Jabarin family experiences a pogrom every single night. They are afraid to sleep at home for (as one sees in the video) this is what they find in the morning. So they spend their nights at the homes of acquaintances in various places. The mother talks again about the army-uniformed settler-colonists, that this is what they do. They destroy everything, tear up the gas, water and electricity wires and pipes, vandalize furniture and mattresses, trample the vegetable plot. They have destroyed the chicken coop and all 25 chickens were killed. This happened although on the whole police attention has improved… Still the villagers feel unprotected.
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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