Umm al-Kheir - fear of the rioting settler farms
At the Meitar checkpoint, 12 cars were counted on the Palestinian side – very few authorized workers crossed into Israel.
Highway 317 – New piles of dirt were piled up to block vehicles from the villages from reaching the dirt roads to the road.
Maon settlement – workers are expanding the vineyard north of the road. A new water tower has been built and painted at the intersection.
All the men are sitting in the only public building in the village, which serves as the mukhtar’s office and the kindergarten. They are sitting and waiting. They have been sitting like this for a year and a quarter, there is no work and only the fear of the settler farms around creates vigilance. If the rioters arrive, they have no way to defend themselves except to try to call the police. Any attempt by them to use force against the invaders will result in their arrest, the settlers will come out unharmed, as if they were attacked.
This time they know what they are waiting for: the settlers take over territory through planting. A few days ago, settlers arrived with maps marked with the “blue line” meaning the border between the village area and the state lands that can supposedly be taken over. The settlers marked with a white thread that line on the map, which crosses the farthest house in the village – between it and Salah’s barn, and goes down to the road to the east. Immediately after marking, they dug pits and filled them with garbage, brought a bench and announced that on Friday, February 14, a ceremony to plant olive trees would be held with a large crowd.
36 pits which have already been dug are very close to the village fence and create a living border on two sides of the village. Across the dirt road that goes down to the east, the Palestinian Authority built a water pond that serves the villages in the area and the large school in the area. The settlers climbed onto the pond and placed an Israeli flag visible from afar – a symbol of the occupation. Villager Eid, an excellent Hebrew speaker who has exhibited in Israel and abroad, expresses everyone’s pain. They are desperate and angry, and above all helpless in the face of the settlers’ violence and their abandonment by the Israeli law enforcement authorities – the police and the army.
He still has compassion for the “slave” boys, in his language: a phenomenon that is not new but is increasing in intensity: The phenomenon of slaves, 13–14-year-old boys from the institutionalized settlements who have behavioural problems and have not been integrated into educational institutions, are handed over by their parents for “re-education” in special institutions in Susiya and other settlements.
In fact, they are scattered among the cattle farms that were established in Masafer Yatta to take over Palestinian lands, and there they are employed in the hard work that the farm owners (Kaplan, Yinon, and their ilk) do not do. They are sent to graze the herds even in weather that is not at all suitable for sheep. They are recruited to riot in Palestinian villages because they are teenagers under the age of criminal liability. They are very violent, purposeful (brainwashed in Eid’s language) and instigators of quarrels. The villagers are very keen to spread this information because most of the harassment is done by these young people. The hopelessness of the people of Masafer Yatta also gripped us, and it was felt throughout the entire journey.
Location Description
Masafer Yatta
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This is happening in Fire Area 918 in the South Hebron Hills
On the eve of Remembrance Day (the day before Israel Independence Day), the Israeli High Court decided on the transfer and expulsion of residents from 8 Palestinian communities in the area of Masafar Yata in the South Hebron Hills. Residents of the villages have been living under the threat of demolition, evacuation and expropriation since the IDF issued evacuation orders in 1999 based on the 1980's proclamation of their area of residence as a firing zone for IDF drills. None of the nearby settlements were included in this zone.The Masafer Yata Palestiniian villages retain a special lifestyle and ancient agricultural culture. They also posses a clear historical documentation that testifies to a Palestinian settlement in this area, generations before the establishment of Israel - long ago in the caves and in later times outside them.
Evacuating residents from the area means destroying these historic villages and leaving entire families (about 2,000 people, children, adults and the elderly) homeless. This is contrary to international law.
In June 2022, a firing drill has started, and life has become harder.
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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
Smadar BeckerFeb-12-2025The establishment of the outpost near the Meitarim Farm, near Zanuta, aligning the area with Highway 60
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Umm al-Kheir
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Umm al-Kheir
A Palestinian village in the southern Hebron governorate, populated by five families. The Palestinian residents settled there decades ago, after Israel expelled them from the Arad desert and purchased the land from the residents of the Palestinian village of Yatta. The village suffers from the violence of nearby Carmel settlers, from water shortage and is subject to frequent demolition of buildings by the Civil Administration.
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