Susiya: Police are making sure Israelis don't enter
The whole area is beautifully green, with patches of yellow blooms, mainly mustard plants.
- Susiya
Ahmad reports that last Friday he was attacked by seven masked settlers carrying sticks, who arrived in a Toyota from the direction of the army base – the direction of Old Susiya.
He ran home and bolted the door to protect his family at home. The settlers continued to attack and tried to break through the door, but in the end, they left.
Today, we had brought food that had been bought for A and H. On the dirt track leading to the village, we were followed by a police van. When we stopped and got out, the policeman told us that we weren’t allowed to be here as it’s a closed military area. “You risk getting arrested by the army.” That’s to say, the police are not to blame, they are only enforcing policy dictated by the army.
This is the first time that the police have stopped us from visiting here. The policeman says that it’s the village residents who have asked for the area to be declared closed. I reply that they were asking for protection from attacks by settlers, and that it’s the settlers who should not be allowed into the village. The policeman emphasizes that Israelis should not enter and by his definition, that includes us, friends of the village, as well. He allows us to stop for a moment to unload the food we’ve brought.
As we leave, we see the villagers’ herd grazing in the small enclosed patch of ground to which they are confined.
- A-Rahwah, below the Tene Omarim settlement.
Mohammad’s report based on his phone calls with Palestinians living there.
Two families live there. The settlers surrounded them with a fence and placed Israeli flags on it. When sheep went to graze outside the fence, a female settler left the nearby Mor Farm on an ATV and drove them back in. That was enough for the Abu Saraf, who began packing up to leave the place and move to Ramadin. You can see here the photo they sent us. According to the sign, they are being evicted to make way for an industrial park.
The other family who remained, A-Tel, M. called the police to complain that sheep and cows belonging to the settlers had entered his home. Since the family is only renting the land from the owner, who lives in Dhahiriya, the policeman said there was nothing he could do about it. After the police left, the army came and arrested M., tied his hands behind his back and held him for four hours before letting him go.
When he got home, he found many settlers there. They attacked him, took his cellphone, deleted all the documentation, and threw it on the ground, and told the army that he’d attacked them, thrown stones at them. The army arrested him again, with his hands tied behind his back, and took him to the base at Susiya. And after dark, threw him from the jeep near Eshtemoa.
When he freed his hands, he managed to get his cellphone and call friends. He’s also thinking of leaving and asked us not to come because its too dangerous for him and for us.
That’s how it is at the start of the joyful Jewish month of Adar. Ramadam kareem.
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
MuhammadFeb-24-2026South Hebron Hill, Beit Hagai: Paving an internal security road
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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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