South Hebron Hills
We heard several things at Meitar Checkpoint, talking to people – some of whom were very bitter:
- Entry-into-Israel permits are not being issued to merchants, because of Covid-19.
- People aged 55 and up, who usually do not need permits, are not allowed through for fear of Covid-19.
- Gate 11 for (pedestrians) is available and quite a few people take advantage of it.
Today we decided to visit the Palestinian Authority schools and see how they were faring. The first we visited was the school at Zinuta. A new principal has replaced our friend F., and he was glad to make our acquaintance. We had coffee and heard the following: This school has 30 children and 6 faculty – the principal, the janitor, and 4 women teachers. For the past two months, the children have been studying in capsules of 15 each, for 3 hours, from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., and then from 12 noon until 3 p.m. The PA has allotted funds for planting a lawn and a garden. Although there’s a shortage of classroom space, they do not build new classrooms for fear of demolition by the Civil Administration. The garden retains the grounds.
The second school we visited was Challenge 13 in Simiya, where we witnessed to repeated demolitions and the struggle against the Civil Administration. It has been established by our friend F. and is run by a new principal, a young woman with perfectly fluent English. She demanded that we show her a pass issued by the PA, she would not let anyone in the school without one. The children have been studying there for months in one capsule because there are only 19 children attending the school. This school too has a synthetic lawn purchased for it by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
The last school we visited was the boys’ school Al Ibrahimiya. A., our old acquaintance, came to greet us. He is the school’s janitor. He told us that the children were studying in capsules of 15, throughout the whole school day. However, they attend school on alternating days of the week.
There are hardly any Covid-19 cases in his neighborhood. It’s always nice to speak with children who do not know Israelis of our kind.
Despair is born of poverty that is more hopeless than ever, and occupation has crossed the lines, as has the pandemic. Altogether – despair wins.
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.Apr-21-2026Daphna with Azzam in Susiya
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