Susiya - Shem Tov Luski from ancient Susiya and Amishav Peled from Mishkan Farm keep stealing
The purpose of this shift was a visit to Susiya, after severe reports of an incident of violence against olive pickers with volunteers.
We first drove along Route 60 to see what the entrances to the Palestinian settlements along the road look like.
At the entrance to Samu’ the gate was open, the entrance to Dahariya is still closed for a year. The gate to Abde was open. Dura – al-Fawwar Junction to Dura is open, to al-Fawwar is closed. We saw people from al-Fawwar going to the junction through the fields because they are not allowed to go through the road. The entrance to Hebron, which is at the foot of Beit Hagai settlement, is closed. At the Qilqis–Hebron intersection, the gates are closed and there are soldiers with drawn weapons at the checkpoint. People, women, old men and children of all ages go back and forth on foot. At the Sheep Crossing, the entrance on the side of Rihia to Hebron is closed, but on the side through the quarries to Hebron is open with a checkpoint manned by soldiers. At the intersection of highway 60 with 317, there is a manned checkpoint facing towards at the intersection.
As a rule, there is an increased presence of soldiers everywhere on the holiday of Sukkot, compared to other days. At the Zif junction the entrance to Yatta closed. People and cars work back-to-back. We bought groceries at the grocery store at the Zif junction for Azzam and Wadha, and continued to Susiya. The entrances to Yatta are still closed and the piles of stones and dirt prevent entry to the town, except for the road to Khalet al-Mai, approximately in front of Dirat. There the way is open.
We reached Azzam and Wadha and he told us about the event that took place on Saturday. The incident happened when settlers arrived while the Palestinians were working in an olive grove. The settlers tried to prevent them from picking the olives and beat them with a stick. An Israeli volunteer who tried to protect them was beaten and an ambulance had to be called, to take her to the hospital. She refused to be evacuated by Magen David Adom and they called the Red Crescent and arranged with the hospital in Yatta to treat her, even though she is Israeli and so it was*. Now she is at home with broken ribs. Azzam says that every day the settlers come with their herds who eat all their crops and break their seedlings. “Even today,” he said, “I tried to call the police but everyone is busy with the demolitions in Tuba. Then soldiers arrived, only to keep the settlers away. No one was ever arrested or questioned. As a rule, the soldiers receive instructions from the settlers and coordinate with them in every matter.”
To reinforce this reality, he recounts an incident from two months ago, when two settlers came to him while he was in his daughter’s cave which is used for storage, and started throwing stones at him. When he asked why they don’t pass quietly on their way to the new outpost called Havat Mishkan, the settler named Amishab Peled came back to him with a knife and asked, “Do you want to die?” Why is this cave so important to you? and continued to throw stones. Azzam says: This is mine, in my land and they recently settled not far away and are trying to drive us out and make our lives bitter. So later the settlers went to the old Susiya where a settler named Shem Tov Luski also settled and there they called 5 more people who came with a horse and a scooter and they also threatened and tried to beat him. When he called the police, they told him to file a complaint in Kiryat Arba and so he did.
“So, what do you think?” he asks. “Did they do something? Did they stop? Did you investigate? nothing. I see them continue to hang around here and bother my neighbours too. Shem Tov Luski from Old Susiya and Amishab Peled from Mishkan keep stealing our water tanks, and the posts of the fences we are trying to build around our plots. The police know all about this and do nothing to them and we continue to be bothered almost every day.”
Again, around the Nawaja’a family in Susiya, the settlers are trying to surround it with new settlements and restriction of movement, as described repeatedly in our reports.
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* A foreign activist was injured after settlers attacked olive pickers in Kfar Sousia, east of Hebron.
https://x.com/khalilasslan/status/1847206578933354923?s=46
Location Description
Dura Al-Fawwar Junction
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Junction on Route 60: west - the town of El Dura, east - the Al Fawwar refugee camp. There is a manned pillbox at the junction. From time to time the army sets up flying checkpoints at the entrance to El Fawwar and Al Dura. Al-Fawwar is a large refugee camp (7,000 inhabitants in 2007) established in 1949 to accommodate Palestinian refugees from Be'er Sheva and Beit Jubrin and environs. There are many incidents of stone-throwing. In the vicinity of the pillbox there are excellent agricultural areas, Farmers set up stalls adjacent to the plots close to the road. In recent months the civil administration has set up dirt embankments thereby blocking access to the stalls, and making it impossible for the farmers to sell their vegetables. Updated April 2021, Michal T.
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Hakvasim (sheep) Junction
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One of the roadblocks (earthworks, rocks, concrete blocks or iron gates) that prevent transit of vehicles to Route 60 in the southern West Bank and block the southern entrance to Hebron. A manned pillbox supervises the place.
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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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Zif Junction
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Zif Junction located on the crossroads that directs towards Road 356 to Yata. Yata is the district city of the southern Hebron Mountains. Usually, this junction is open to traffic. The nearby pillbox is unmanned. But the army and police are present occasionally, sometimes setting up a checkpoint and sometimes detaining residents from the big city. Often, the Israeli policemen inspect vehicles and distribute driving reports to Palestinian vehicles. s
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