Susiya - "First save me, then ask me for permits"
“First save me, then ask me for permits,” Azzam replied to the policeman who arrived two hours and ten minutes after being called to protect him from a settler attack.
A key sentence that tells almost the entire story about people whose lives are not equal and whose rights are not equal.
We went to Susiya to visit and hear again about their plight and to bring groceries to the family of Ahmad Nawaja’a, who lives on the outskirts of the residential complex, who is in very dire straits and who also experiences abuse and harassment from the settlers.
First, we went to Azzam and Wadha’s, our long-time friends. This noble and wise man answers my question about their well-being: “Excuse me for saying, shit in mud or shit plus, which is better?” And then he talks about an increasingly difficult life: “We have to coordinate everything now and every action requires coordination and approval, even ploughing, even harvesting our trees near the house. In the meantime, we don’t need approval to breathe. In the past, only if we approached the Jewish Susiya to work our fields, did we have to coordinate. Now every smallest action is required.”
We were happy to hear that the ploughs confiscated in Sha’ab al-Butum were returned to their owners thanks to the excellent attorney, Kamar Mishraki, a few days ago. Now they plough with volunteers from Israel and abroad accompanying them.
I ask him again for the names of the Jewish settlers who hurt them the most: “Shem Tov Luski, who settled inside the archaeological site of Susiya, Amishav Peled, who settled across from them not far from the Jewish Susiya, the name of the new settlement: Mishkan HaRo’im.” Azzam points with his hand to another hill across from him, “And here Pavel and Malka settled with their herd. I don’t know what name they gave their settlement.” These are mainly the people who come almost every day with ATVs or horses or on foot with their herds, cursing the Palestinians: “Sons of bitches, Nazis, get out of here, everything is ours,” and more. The cows trample the trees and eat them. In this, Shemtov Lusky excels. Azzam says that he, Lusky, addressed his neighbour, Hamdan, in this manner: “You beautiful coward. Come, come, we will do to you what the soldiers did in the Yemen field,” and other words on the level of sexual harassment. Almost every day he comes with his 12 cows. Azzam tells of a serious incident from a month ago when masked men arrived with clubs, threatened and shouted: “We will kill you, we will expel you, this is our house, you are temporary here, today or tomorrow you will die.” It was really close to Azzam’s house. They could not be identified because they were masked, and then he called the police as agreed with them. It took two hours and 10 minutes for the police to arrive. “I thanked him for coming right on time,” Azzam says ironically.
And the policeman replied: “Do you have documents that the land here is yours?”
“First save me, then ask for paperwork,” Azzam replied. The policeman does nothing. He certainly does not apologize. He just fills out a complaint form, gives it to him and says: “Take the form, you have an incident number here. Go with this to the Kiryat Arba police station and file a complaint.”
“Why file a complaint?” Azzam replied. “What did you do with the previous complaints? The ones who threatened me with a knife are still walking around free. You didn’t do anything with the previous complaints.”
Again: “Do you have papers to prove ownership of the land?” And then the policeman turned and walked away.
Nasr Nawaja’a, who joins the conversation, says, “They should legally come and act only because they damaged property here and endangered people’s lives. Don’t condition their treatment on presenting paperwork on ownership.”
And he goes on to mention the names of settlers who harm people every day: Yinon Levy, Ilai Friedman from Meitar Farm. Another farm that has sprung up in the last two years and its people are raiding, threatening, harming and making life miserable. They are the ones who caused the people of Zanuta, 70 families, approximately 300 people, to abandon their settlement and are now afraid to return even though the court ruled that they are allowed to return, but not to cultivate their lands. An evil draconian ruling, a magnificent creation of the occupation regime’s creativity. A semblance of doing justice and law now with authority and permission.
What’s the point of returning? What if we can’t live in our house? While we’re still talking, someone from the police calls Nasr and sweetly asks him to come talk and clarify the meaning of the multiple complaints he filed in October about assault, theft of trees and their destruction. Out of concern for you and your well-being, of course, the “policeman” wants to emphasize…..
We’ll be in touch with him about the matter.
We went from there to Ahmad and his wife to bring them groceries. We also bought gas stoves for the wife, Halima, who was left with no way to cook.
They show us a video from Tuesday about the incident I wrote about earlier, the cows eating and trampling the olive trees.
“We sold half of the sheep to feed the rest, since 7.10.
A chronicle of evil and all for security reasons….
Location Description
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
Daphna JungMar-16-2025Simia: Farhan and his wife
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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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