South Hebron Hills, Susiya
Today’s Activity in the Huda Preschool, Hashem-al-Daraj
Aim of the activity: working with plants, water, and preparation of potted plants from plastic bottles and bean seeds.
Road 317: Just past Susya, at the turn to Mitzpe Yair, we saw cars of the Border Police, and a number of Palestinians from Bir al-Eid. The Palestinians were in a truck transporting sheep. They told us that the sheep were meant for a wedding in Yatta. The Border Police soldiers stopped them in order to check if the sheep were stolen. The soldiers were polite, more or less. They told us they were waiting for instructions. The Palestinians told us that the sheep are marked (with numbers) as their sheep. Mohamed put them in touch with Azem and Naser in Susya. We took their phone numbers and later we learned that they had been released with their sheep. Their treatment seems to have been fair because there are many thefts of sheep in this area (also in many settlements within Israel). But is hard to shake off the feeling that the Border Police would not have stopped a truck of sheep that was driven by Jews.
We stopped at the preschool in Tuwani in order to drop off some equipment we purchased for the preschool – plastic boards for hanging work on the wall, paints, and so on. We hope that the preschool teacher, Suad, will receive help from the villagers
Hashem-al-Daraj:
We were received by Huda, Amna, and the children with smiles and hugs. Huda said how good it was to meet with Israelis who don’t just demand to see entry permits. We began the activity with a story about seeds that grew into sunflowers (Huda read from a book that we had provided). We continued outside with plastic bottles that the children filled with potted soil, planted bean seeds and watered them. Each child took his pot home. We hope that some of the plants will be cared for as needed, and that the children will see the bean plants grow.
We concluded our visit in the usual way – drinking tea. We discussed the future of the preschool, a continuing conversation with Huda. We are planning to continue our work with the preschool teachers and possibly raising support for them to study. Salary payment for the preschool teachers remains a problem. We have submitted a request for support for part of their salaries.
Pictures of our activities at the preschool – the album of 26.9.2018 can be found in the album gallery of Gan Huda:
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
MuhammadFeb-24-2026South Hebron Hill, Beit Hagai: Paving an internal security road
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Susiya
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Susiya The Palestinian area lies between the settlement of Susya and a military base. The residents began to settle in areas outside the villages in the 1830s and lived in caves, tents and sukkot. To this day they maintain a traditional lifestyle and their livelihood is based on agriculture and herding. Until the 1948 war, the farmers cultivated areas that extended to the Arad area. As a result of the war, a significant portion of their land left on the Israeli side was lost. After the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation, military camps were established in the area, fire zones and nature reserves were declared, and the land area was further reduced. The Jewish settlement in Susya began in 1979. Since then, there has been a stubborn struggle to remove the remains of Palestinian residents who refuse to leave their place of birth and move to nearby town Yatta. With the development of a tourist site in Khirbet Susya in the late 1980s (an ancient synagogue), dozens of families living in caves in its vicinity were deported. In the second half of the 1990s, a new form of settlement developed in the area - shepherds' farms of individual settlers. This phenomenon increased the tension between the settlers and the original, Palestinian residents, and led to repeated harassment of the residents of the farms towards the Palestinians. At the same time, demolition of buildings and crop destruction by security forces continued, as well as water and electricity prevention. In the Palestinian Susya, as in a large part of the villages of the southern Hebron Mountains, there is no running water, but the water pipe that supplies water to the Susya Jewish settlement passes through it. Palestinians have to buy expensive water that comes in tankers. Solar electricity is provided by a collector system, installed with donation funds. But the frequent demolitions in the villages do not spare water cisterns or the solar panels and power poles designed to transfer solar electricity between the villages. Updated April 2021, Anat T.
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