Susiya - a settler from the Susiya settlement comes with cows and sheep to the orchard
The shift this time was in accordance to the request of Dunia Abu Sharekh who contacted me (Smadar), in the evening hours on 29.5.24. We came to hear the exact details of the event.
The members of the extended family welcome us and here are the details:
On Wednesday, 29.5.24, Samer, Dunia’s husband, returned on the family tractor from purchasing water (there is no choice, the water in the wells is not enough for the needs of the family and the flock) from the village of Ramadin, which is several kilometres from Rahwe. Ahmad, Samer’s uncle, saw what was happening from the nearby hill and reported to the rest of the family. They rushed to check what was happening but only managed to take a few pictures, because the soldiers, four in number, threatened to take the cell phones. He was given no reason for being arrested.
Soldiers, not soldiers – impersonating settlers.
Samer was taken to a small room, located at an intersection with pillboxes and occasional army checkpoints. It is also a reference to those whose travel destination is Ramadin and Dahariya.
“What did they do to you?” I am interested. Well, for four hours he sat there, his eyes covered with a flannel and nothing else. Yes, torture and abuse, just for that.
Around 22.00 he returned home on the tractor he was driving.
Dunia adds that on Saturday, June 1, 2024, three young men from the Tene Omarim settlement, located on the hills above Rahwe, stood and cursed the family members, including obscene movements. I will not publish the content of the curses. The regular military security coordinator of Tene Omarim arrived and demanded that the three leave the place.
We brought games for the children, a package of food and clothes. As usual, we were received with joy and gratitude.
While we were there, Nasser Nawaja’a, Hamdan and Bassel Adra, our friends from the B’Tselem organization, arrived to document Samer’s events.
Nasser Nawaja’a tells me that a settler from Susiya, the settlement, Amishav Peled, often comes, even in the morning, to the olive grove of the Nawaja’a family in Susiya. The settler arrives with a herd of cows and sheep, even though the area is closed by a general’s order. His aim is that the herd will eat from the new leaves of the olive trees and harm the regeneration of the trees. The family members called the police who called the army to deal with the incident. Miraculously, after a short time, Amishav Peled left. Is it possible that there is cooperation between the settlers and the army?
Probably so. It is known and visible. This is an occupation.
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
Muhammad D.May-13-2025Susiya - at Ahmad and Halima Nawaja'a
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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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