South Hebron Hills, Susiya
0800 – 1230
Two stories of the occupation .
The village Neizel
The village of Neizel is located on Route 316 on the way to Arad from Route 317 near the Metzadot Yehuda checkpoint. On its eastern side is the fence. Behind the fence is the settlement of Beit Yatir, which by the construction the fence is now in the State of Israel. Since the construction of the fence, we have been told by A. the state of the village has improved, there is now electricity coming from the checkpoint, the Palestinian Authority has built a reservoir of water from the water that comes from a pipe that reaches the checkpoint. The only problem is the sewage of the settlement. They raised the problem with the settlement and they promised to take care of it. A. and his father said that everything was good now.
The ruins have to be carried out near Jimba, where only four-wheeled vehicles can be reached. N. tells us about the operation of “price tag” that was carried out in Jura al-Kheir near Sa’ir. And we decided to go there.
In the picture below: fence, facilities. Water and sewage.
Jura al Kheir is located on Route 356.
This is the pillbox, 20 meters after the turn. The settlement is in Area C and therefore no building permits are received. Two years ago the houses were demolished and they received caravans from an international organization. Ten days ago, the army cameand said that they would demolish the caravans, even though there is a court decision against the demolition and it is only allowed to demolish because of very strong security reasons
The family is regarded by the Secret Service as posing a high security risk and is therefore “prevented”.
One son in an Israeli prison, another son was released in the Shalit deal and now is in Gaza. Perhaps these are the security considerations. The son is visited only by his brother and sister and once a year.
On the hill opposite, a new illegal outpost has been set up and the settlers went down last Saturday night to the Palestinian village, burned a small chicken coop, destroyed and stole a rabbit house and hung a sign.
We did not see the sign because the police who were there yesterday took it for interrogation. The mother us mainly afraid of the settlers coming again. We are trying to organize international activists who will be there with them.
One can not see clearly in the picture, but this is the outpost.
In the picture below: A two-year court decision prohibiting the demolition.
We hear about the stabbing incident in Hebron and decide not to enter.
At Beit Anun the soldiers close the gate and erect a checkpoint. And N. from Susiya says that the bulldozers returned to Hebron without destroying the day.
I’m like Orna Peretz from Kiryat Shmona. Boring the prime minister with my testimonies.י.
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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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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