South Hebron Hills, Tue 19.3.13, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
We paid a condolence call in Dura Al Fawwar.
Mahmoud Tamimi, age 22, was shot and killed by the army during the uproar in the center of Dura Al Fawwar, in Area A, one afternoon last week. He hadn’t thrown rocks. Area A is a Palestinian area; what were our forces doing there?
We received an emotional phone call telling us how important it would be to visit them…
My answer to the question of why it’s any of our business – “So Palestinians will see a different kind of Israeli…” – was manifested today, for we’ll all part of a single human fabric.
We drove through the winding lanes of the refugee camp and reached the family’s home. A teacher from the school who speaks a little Hebrew accompanied us. They brought us to the women’s area; we sat there for an hour and a half, silently, in tears.
Mahmoud’s aunts and mother are dressed in black, all the younger and older girls are angry and mourning. Their only consolation is that he was killed for a just cause: “Liberating Palestine.”
But why, why, why…
We have no words to describe the great sorrow.
The itchy trigger finger forgets that we’re all – every one of us – human beings.
Happy holiday.
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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