South Hebron Hills, Simia
At the request of those who are active with the school in the village of Simia we visited there once again. It seems that the translation of the school name is not dafke, that which was reported last week, but “”challenge” and Simia itself is “challenge 13”. It seems that there are 13 such schools in the occupied territories which are built and destroyed and built and destroyed. We arrived at the school the day after the ceremony of the foundation stone which had been done in the presence of the Palestinian Authority and chemical toilets, a water tank and another tent had been put up to be used as a room for the teachers.
From Simia, at Muhammad’s proposal, we continue to Zenuta, where the “Challenge 7” school is located, in order to meet the principal. We met the principal of the school, Fatma, an impressive young woman who told us about the school that had been destroyed three times. This impressive woman married at the age of 16, is the mother of a 24 year old who is already an engineer. She herself returned to school after her marriage, attended university and now teaches there.
A bumpy road leads to the school and especially after rain, the road is not passable . The school staff brought raw material from quarries of the area to absorb the water, but the settlers in the area did not like the idea. One of the settlers dumped garbage at the entrance to the school. The principal tries to instill in the students values of culture, heritage and personal and social responsibility. At the end of the school day the children clean the classrooms themselves
As part of the tradition they dance the dahiya dance at the end of the school day. Fatma said she was offered to run a normal school but she refused. She sees this school as a challenge..
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
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