Visit to Villages: Shweika, Southern Hebron Hills, Hebron, Sansana (Meitar crossing), Sunday, 2.10.11, morning
6.45-10.00
Translator: Charles K.
Meitar:
Laborers waiting for their employers fill the parking lot on the Israeli side. The Palestinian side is empty.
Route 60
We observe piles of earth forming new roadblocks on side roads in the southern area near Abda and Dahariyya.
Israeli flags decorate the electric poles. Another way to mark the festiveness of the statehood application to the UN??
Hebron
The city welcomes us with an Israeli flag stretched across Beit HaMeriva.
The city is quiet, maybe somewhat more Border Police soldiers than usual near the Worshippers’ route and the Tzion route, inobtrusive in the buildings’ shadows. A few more paratroopers spread along Shuhada street.
CPT volunteers at the Pharmacy checkpoint tell us the holiday passed relatively quietly.
Pakistani or Indian pilgrims descend quietly from the Cave of the Patriarchs straight to the buses, the souvenir merchants watching them disappointedly because the pilgrims’ route passes near their shops, but not near enough.
Highway 60 south
Hagit read online about violence by residents of Eshtamo’a (known, erroneously, as “price tag”). We decided to see for ourselves.
Farhan, from the village of Simiya (near Samu’a) takes us in his valiant Subaru on a dirt road to the village of Shweika. On the way he tells us that he heard on the news about more activity by the Eshtamo’a settlers – confiscation of a flock of sheep belonging to a local Arab. The two younger sons of the victimized landowner join us when we reach Shweika. We descend into the wadi below Shweika and see the horrible sight: two terraces of olive trees completely destroyed! The settlers broke all the green branches of the olive trees and destroyed the entire grove. On a nearby rock they wrote, in red – the price tag’s blood.
The locals say the tracks indicate that 4-5 rowdies must have spent about two hours carrying out the destruction, watched the whole time by IDF soldiers in their post below the Eshtamo’a outpost.
We see from the destroyed grove Eshtamo’a’s prefabs on the ridge, and the military post is clearly visible below them. It should be noted that the army didn’t intervene at all on the villagers’ behalf. The scene is terrible and very sad; we have no words to console the villagers. Instead, they comfort us, tell us that the army returned the sheep that were taken, this time acting rapidly and effectively.
On our way back to Highway 60 we see the destroyed grove from above – a metaphor for what peace is like here.
Hebron
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According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints, manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.
Checkpoints observed in H2:
- Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
- Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
- The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
- Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station
Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Raya YeorDec-18-2025Hebron - Yusri Jaber and part of his family
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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
MuhammadFeb-24-2026South Hebron Hill, Beit Hagai: Paving an internal security road
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