The Wadada area - settlers plough private Palestinian land
Settler violence, settlers attempt to takeover land, arrest of local inhabitants
Already last week, Mohammad reported a phone call he got from the inhabitants of the Wadadah area (south of the Meitarim industrial zone near Zanuta), telling him about a violent clash last Wednesday, February 22.
B’Tselem researcher Nasser Nawaj’ah looked into it and this is the summary of the event:
Last Wednesday, inhabitants of who live near Yinon’s colonist outpost Havat Meitarim, noticed that colonists from the outpost were plowing the land of a family from Samu’. The land is privately owned, including all the necessary documentation. Seven members of the family came to the spot and found about ten colonists turning over the soil in the area by using a bulldozer. Standing beside the colonists were three Israeli soldiers. The land owners from Samu’a tried to stop the colonists. A clash ensued, yells, shoves. The colonists violently attacked the family. The soldiers tried to distance the Palestinian landowners from Samu’. The colonists continued to attack them. One of the Samu’a villagers was beaten in the face and was hurt under his eye.
The end of the confrontation, as usually happens in colonists’ confrontations with local inhabitants: another thirteen soldiers arrived and arrested five Palestinians. None of the colonists were arrested, and Yinon had permission to continue working the land, claiming that this was state land, in spite of the documentation belonging to the landowners of Samu’a. The Palestinian detainees were taken to an army base bear Amnaizel. They were held there for some hours, then taken to the police station at Kiryat Arba colony, and finally four of them were released on bail, 1000 shekel each. The fifth detainee was not released, and was tried on Sunday, probably at Ofer military court. His sentence is unknown.
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
Smadar BeckerApr-10-2026New Israeli flags placed for miles on Highway 317 to prove who is sovereign
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