Susiya: siege, terror, total oppression
14.03.24
There is limited traffic of cars and lorries at the Meitar checkpoint, but save for a few isolated cars the carparks are empty. This is due to a combination of the curfew and Ramadan, as well as the lengthy period of time, since the break-out of the Gaza war, during which workmen do not enter Israel in order to work.
We turned to road 317 and travelled to visit Azam at Susiya. Almost all along our journey the majority of the passes, the dirt roads and the entrances to the villages are blocked. There is almost no possibility to enter with a vehicle, save for via circuitous and twisted routs.
Azam tells us about civilian jeeps with settlers, who are not soldiers but dressed in uniforms, who circle around showing off presence. From time to time they enter the village, threaten the occupants and prohibit them from walking further than 50 meters from their homes! In addition, they have destroyed their water holes, in which they collect rainwater; some of the water holes were blocked with large cement blocks. So as to survive, the occupants are compelled to steal water from the pipes of Mekorot, the Israeli Water Company, which in turn yields blame and accusations.
They are watched around Susiya, not allowed to plow, harvest olives, not go out to pasture far from the encampment, etc.
Azam says his life feels under siege and under constant threat, almost like that of Palestinians in Gaza. Without work, without livelihood, without freedom of movement – tension and frustration rise exponentially.
A few days ago, a woman from the village went down to the valley with some sheep. She was arrested and taken to Kiryat Arba. She was released after a few hours.
The situation is getting worse, the pressure is increasing, and with it the tension and anger. They have no hope for change or improvement in their situation.
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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