South Hebron Hills – what hides behind the pastoral view
Route 317: Wadi Radim, Abu Safi.
Abu Safi called on Sunday, saying that settlers are again ploughing his friend’s land. We wanted to see for ourselves what was once more happening.
On the way, Tani Goldstein, a correspondent of Israel Times, called. His wife had referred him to us following his question regarding increased construction in the
Southern Hebron Hills since the elections.
So, first of all, yes there is, and we have reported on this time and time again. I sent him in real time:
1. Photos of the new caravans in Mitzpe Eshtamoa.
2. Photos of the bulldozers (whose noise can be heard in the distance) in the new neighborhood being built in Mitzpe Asael. This, apart from caravans that have been added in recent months. The construction is being carried out with great gusto. You can see the clouds of dust.
I took pictures from a distance because we don’t dare to get closer after experiencing unpleasant encounters with the head of the settlement.
Abu Safi: Abu Safi is ploughing and sowing wheat and hoping for rain. Abu Safi called on Sunday, 11.12.22, to report the ploughing of Havat Ma’on settlers (an illegal outpost) on the lands of the Mahrij family from Samu’. The ploughing was done by Shimon ben Gigi, the security guard of Havat Ma’on, with a contractor named Yinon, who is also a new settler, and has a farm near Zanota. They claimed that this was state land, and ploughed with a tractor with the Israeli flag flying on it. Fortunately for the owner of the land, the people of the DCO came and drove out the invaders. Abu Safi says that even today, Tuesday, the invaders came back and tried to plough, and once again the people of the DCO came and drove them out.
It will probably be a continuous struggle, with a reasonable chance that at the end of it the lands will be declared state lands. On the way back we met Abu Safi’s herd of goats, which are herded by his wife, Nourus, and his daughter Rania (for whom we previously obtained funding for a sewing course, and she got married not long ago and is coming to visit) and her little daughter Farah. Everything here is pastoral and so misleading.
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
Michal TsadikJul-25-2025The interior of the burnt house
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