South Hebron Hills, Thu 21.4.11, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
We drove to Um al Khair, where we joined Hamed in his jeep to go to Hasham al Daraj ("The nose of the terrace")
On road 317 there is a lot of traffic around the settlement of Sussia.
Um al Khair
We met a group of volunteers from the village group. Most of the houses in the village are built without permits since there are no permits to build underneath the Carmel fence, and there are demolition orders in the village.
We also stopped at the kindergarten in Um al Khair which was painted in bright colors. There is a water tank on the roof that provides "running" water in the faucets. The teachers are very proud of the spices growing in the flowerboxes.
The Kindergarten at Hasham al Daraj
The kindergarten was unrecognizable. The walls were covered with pictures with numbers in Arabic – all made by the teacher, Huda, who is extremely creative. The last time we were here the walls were bare concrete. It's nice to think that maybe we had some part in bringing about the change.
The children know us and came to shake out hands excitedly. We tried to organize a group musical activity inspired by the workshop led by Felicity Lorenz in which Huda also participated. We brought various percussion instruments. Huda chose a song about different parts of the body and despite the language difficulties and with Hamed's help translating we managed to arrange for a different musical instrument for different parts of the body. Huda sang with the children and the musical instruments came in more or less at the right time. It was successful compared to the first time because of the group activity that also gave an opportunity for the children to express themselves. Unfortunately we could not leave the musical instruments, but we will attempt to arrange for others to be brought for the kindergarten to keep.
We will try to arrange an art activity for next time until we can find a professional who speaks Arabic. We also plan to try and organize a workshop for kindergarten teachers in Um al Khair.
The construction is about to begin and building materials that were brought by UNWRA are already at the site. They will begin by building in front of the present kindergarten and to build bathrooms near the septic tank, since there are none there.
We pair Huda her salary for the month of April from the British Shalom-Salaam Trust and left with a good feeling.
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
Raya YeorMay-15-2025No-traffic signs around Dahariya
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