South Hebron Hills - settler takeover, checkpoints and great difficulty in life
The shift was coordinated with our friend Farhan from A–Simia and we started with a trip to Meitar to collect dozens of sweatshirts to hand out in this cold winter.
In our past, near the areas of the communities we visited and knew, we always mention the names of the people, women and children who were close to our hearts.
This is how we passed by Zanuta, the village from which its 250 inhabitants were expelled, about two months ago. It was easy to spot the shepherd dressed in orange, with his flock of sheep. On the other hand, it was hard to see that the area near Zanuta’s school, which the sheep grazed in front of, belonged to the family that was deported.
Further on, on Route 60, a photo of the entrance and exit to Samu’, a town south of Hebron, with about 20,000 inhabitants.
The rest of the entrances and exits have been blocked since October 7th, as we reported in recent months.
Near Simia, we noticed Farhan Salamin coming from Samu’ in a small private car to greet us. His wife, Myser, and he happily welcome us in their beautiful home. His parents and generations before lived in a nearby cave, and in 1970 the house where his family lives today was built.
In Samu’, which is opposite A-Simia, Farhan earns a living from transportation as a taxi driver. He drives the residents of the area from village to village. Usually, another vehicle is waiting for them at the entrance because it is not possible to enter due to the many barriers.
He says that there has been a drastic deterioration since the war. The school, which he founded several years ago in Simia, is not active. His 7-year-old grandson, who lives in their house, was engrossed in a cell phone. Sometimes there are Zoom lessons, not regularly. We have already heard the reason in other visits to other villages: the teachers cannot come from Dura, Yatta and Samu’ to teach. Again, everything is blocked.
I asked what he would like to tell about his family life recently. A son who lives in Ramallah with his family, and works as a clerk in the Palestinian Authority, earns about half of his salary in the days before the war. We were not surprised as we had been told the same by others, who had jobs in the Palestinian Authority.
Farhan told us about an event that took place two days before our visit:
When he drove by the Mekorot water pool, which is about a hundred meters from his house, on the other side of Highway 60, he was stopped by two settlers armed with long weapons. One of them got out of the car they arrived with, tried to stop Farhan and demanded that he hand over the keys to his car, with which he supports the family. The settler who remained in their vehicle threatened him with the weapon and the barrel was pointed at Farhan.
Without hesitating, Farhan quickly fled the scene in the car to his home. By all accounts a difficult event.
Farhan has a house that he started building in A-Simia, in the land belonging to his family. Two years ago, they received letters to stop construction. There are no building permits in A-Samia. Farhan went to court, but the issue has been pending for years.
Another shift that again tells about settlers taking over, roadblocks and great difficulty in life.
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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Zanuta
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Zanuta was a small rural Palestinian locality until its demolition. It was situated in the space around the town Dahariya in the South Hebron Hills, about a ten-minute ride from Meitar Checkpoint. There are documented remains of a large Byzantine settlement in the area. Since the Ottoman (Turkish Empire) period (1516-1917) Zanuta was documented as a locality of shepherds and farmers who live in the remains of the ancient structures and the residential caves near them.
Two individual ranches of colonists were created next to Zanuta: Meitarim (of the colonist Yinon Levi) to the east, and Yehudah (of the colonist Elyashiv Nachum) to the north. Endless attacks, harassments and attempt to chase away the Zanuta villagers have originated in these two outposts.
Until the expulsion, four families lived in the village: A-Samama, Al-Tel, Al Batat, and Al-Qaisia. Farming constituted their main economic activity and employed most of the villagers. The total area of the village is about 12,000 dunams, of which about 3,000 are tended, mostly with field crops.
This village has never had a master plan that would legitimize construction permits. The Civil Administration claimed it was too small and the distance to the next town, Dahariya, too great. For this reason, the Israeli authorities pressured the villagers to leave. The colonists did the job for them.
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