South Hebron Hills, Susiya, Mon 20.5.13, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
The torments of Khader al-Amur – one man who represents many others. But also a glimmer of hope.
08:00-10:30
I drove to meet Khader; 70 of his olive trees were mutilated two weeks ago by Jewish terrorists.
Why did I go? Because today at the Tarqumiyya crossing they also confiscated his work permit, and I wanted to get him to sign a power of attorney for Silvia so she could try to have it returned.
I also spoke to Hanna Barag, who’ll also try to find out why the permit was suddenly confiscated.
Why are they preventing him from working, in addition to all his other troubles?
A Jewish terror victim would probably receive help, support, compensation, etc. But Khader? Who cares about Khader?
So we met when he returned from Tarqumiyya without his work permit.
In addition to signing the power of attorney he said they might have confiscated the permit because of an incident that occurred 20 days before the trees were cut down.
What happened? One night a family living a few hundred meters from his olive grove [we know their name] stole water. A long pipe connected to the Meqorot water supply point brought water to that family’s holding tank.
Unfortunately, the pipe began leaking at a spot adjoining Khader’s grove.
Personnel from the Civil Administration, the police and the army accused him of sabotage and theft.
Khader showed them the pipe and asked them to follow it with him to see who really stole the water. The policeman said: “I can’t go in there; who’ll protect me?” They took him to the Kiryat Arba police station. He was there for 8 hours, an investigation file was opened and he was released with a NIS 500 bond.
The family causing his troubles confirmed to him they’d stolen the water, visited him twice and offered whatever financial help he needed. But no one did what the police and army should have done.
So now, no olives and no work. Why? Because in the struggle for survival forced on the Palestinians they injure each other and we, who are responsible for their fate, don’t enforce the law there, neither for Jews nor for Palestinians. It’s easier instead to create an appearance of law enforcement and search for justice “under the street light.”
At Chana Barg’s suggestion, I contacted Rabbis for Human Rights. The head of their legal department told me that when an investigation file is opened the work permit is immediately confiscated.
She spoke to Khader; they’ll be in touch with him to provide the necessary help.
Silvia has already looked into the matter. It’s in fact because of the police file.
So, that’s it. A number of people are helping him. Let’s see how long it takes for the mills of justice to discover the truth, give the man back his livelihood and compensate him.
His plot of land is now pruned and clean. The tree stumps look good after being worked on by good people who came to help Khader.
Six more years will pass before he’ll again be able to pick his olives.
Susya
On our way to Zif junction we saw a group of Palestinian farmers, a tractor and… the army across the road, opposite the Susya settlement.
A., from “Combatants for Peace,” told us, with a mixture of joy and apprehension, that today they’d received for the first time permission to plow those 60 dunums after they weren’t allowed to reap the wheat they’d sown there. They called the army to protect them from the settlers, and the army came. “I’m going to call press photographers,” he says, “because I have a feeling that in another half hour we’ll be chased away.”
He drove off. We did also, hurrying to meet Khader.
On our return we were happy to see that, this time, everything was fine. They continued to work in the field, the army provided security, the settlers didn’t show up.
Everything’s fine, says A., smiling at us.
Did someone order them to obey the law? Or was it the massive presence of photographers from all the TV channels, and the ecumenicals [and Ezra Nawwi was also there, of course] which made the difference?
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
Smadar BeckerApr-10-2026New Israeli flags placed for miles on Highway 317 to prove who is sovereign
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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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