South Mount Hebron: Zanuta: Settlers rampage with Palestinia
Following the horrific events taking place in Masafer Yatta since October 7th we drove to Zanuta and Susiya.
In Zanuta we found frightened and angry villagers and a destroyed and dismembered village. They had to demolish their own homes and leave within 24 hours. The colonists and soldiers threatened them with murder if they don’t. People took apart everything they could, and loaded vehicles with their belongings. They are leaving for Yatta. Someone says 7 colonists jumped him and beat him up, his whole body still hurts. We sense hostility towards us although we came to express our solidarity, and it is understood – we are representatives of the occupying state and did nothing to prevent this amok.
We drove to Susiya after a long phone talk with Azam on the previous evening. He told us about the recent weeks. He said that right after the disaster in the Israeli communities near Gaza, bulldozers came to Susiya and piled up soil and rock dykes, as the photos show.
Since they are under siege, we brought them crates with basic food stuffs.
People tell us that lately groups of colonists come to them wearing army uniforms. They beat doors, threaten and demand that the villagers leave. Get out. For days now they have been coming 4-5 times a day, running wild, forcing their entry into homes, saying they look for weapons. They trash everything and go.
We met people who are sad and exhausted, but also determined – expulsion has lain like a sword on their necks for years now. They are experienced in this struggle. Sumud (holding on to the land).
“I’m angry at the Zanouta villagers”, Azam says. “They are cowards. They are a large village. Why did they give up and leave so fast?” He says that tonight the colonists didn’t come and he could finally sleep, after not sleeping for 24 hours. We met Yehuda Shaul there, of Breaking the Silence, with a large group of journalists from Italy and France, and Nasser was telling them the history of the place. We were glad to hear that he as well as other volunteers spend nights there so the villagers would not be alone. Here’s hoping that constant presence of civilians deters and affects the vandals.
There was also the clown-policewoman Azoulay-Things-will-look up, and she played and had fun with the children.
While we were sitting with Wadeha and Azam in their yard, soldiers on patrol came, their guns pointed, demanding that the journalists’ van be moved. They found an excuse to come… and left when they saw such a large number of people standing with the villagers.
That’s what it’s like the whole time. Nights, masked uniform-wearers come too, but the scar on one of their foreheads was not hidden. They giggle and say the name of the violent colonist from Havat Talya, who now has much authority in the region.
The Palestinians are good people, noble and brave. They are struggling constantly over their right to live on their land. They realize that everything happening now is motivated by the wish to avenge the horrors that Hamas wreaked on the Israeli communities near Gaza.
Returning to our vehicle, parked far because of the blockages, a large group of soldiers was standing there. Some of them colonists in uniform. The foreign journalists spoke with them too. One of the soldiers stood and waved his hands, his body language violent and hostile. He pointed to me and said in English – I am speaking about that woman.
What about her? I asked.
I am telling them you are worse than Hamas. What kind of a Jew are you, how can you visit Palestinians in time of war and help them? I would prefer to have coffee with them, not with you…
They are Hamas? I ask. What has this war to do with them? What have they done to you? Ever heard of humanism and human rights?
He answers: For me they are all potential Hamas. We have to be cautious with all of them. Where are you from?
From Omer, I answer.
Ah, from Omer (near Beer Sheva). Let’s see you talk like that when they come from Tel Sheva to slaughter you. Don’t they harass you all the time?
Mohammad, our driver and friend, who always stands aside, silent, finally blew up.
What nonsense! We are with her. Don’t you know there are Bedouins among the Israelis killed and taken hostage? We are all with you. I am a Bedouin. Shame on you.
The ‘brave’ colonist was embarrassed and finally shut up. Soldiers stood around listening silently. We noticed a young reserves soldier who made it obvious that the situation did not suit him. We talked. He was called up three weeks ago.
How do you feel about such a mission? we asked. He answered: I am supposed to protect the Jews, but I feel like a kindergarten teacher here. Apparently, he is a kibbutz member from Ayelet Hashachar (and we have common acquaintances…) and was briefed to secure the colonists and treat Palestinians as a potential danger.
According to the happenings here these last few weeks, the army is not holding the colonists back. The government and army authorities ignore the colonist rampages who are creating a new reality in the South Hebron Hills and throughout the West Bank.
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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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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Zanuta
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Zanuta was a small rural Palestinian locality until its demolition. It was situated in the space around the town Dahariya in the South Hebron Hills, about a ten-minute ride from Meitar Checkpoint. There are documented remains of a large Byzantine settlement in the area. Since the Ottoman (Turkish Empire) period (1516-1917) Zanuta was documented as a locality of shepherds and farmers who live in the remains of the ancient structures and the residential caves near them.
Two individual ranches of colonists were created next to Zanuta: Meitarim (of the colonist Yinon Levi) to the east, and Yehudah (of the colonist Elyashiv Nachum) to the north. Endless attacks, harassments and attempt to chase away the Zanuta villagers have originated in these two outposts.
Until the expulsion, four families lived in the village: A-Samama, Al-Tel, Al Batat, and Al-Qaisia. Farming constituted their main economic activity and employed most of the villagers. The total area of the village is about 12,000 dunams, of which about 3,000 are tended, mostly with field crops.
This village has never had a master plan that would legitimize construction permits. The Civil Administration claimed it was too small and the distance to the next town, Dahariya, too great. For this reason, the Israeli authorities pressured the villagers to leave. The colonists did the job for them.
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