Zanuta - malicious destruction of the school by the violent settler marked by President Biden, Yinon Levy
Fares, who until a few months ago lived in Zanuta, next to the South Mount Hebron Regional Council, was evicted like all the residents of the village by the settler who owns Meitarim farm, Yinon Levy. This happened in December 2023.
The name Yinon Levy appears on the list of violent settlers of Biden, the President of the USA. Years of bullying, invasions, taking over Palestinian pastures and threatening the families at Zanota, took their toll. The Palestinian residents of the village destroyed their houses and other buildings with their own hands. We were there on duty, Michal, me and Muhammad, when Fares and his sons loaded the little they had which they took with them onto vehicles. It was shocking, sad and painful.
The school, small but the pride of the place, they left behind.
We have not visited there since the deportation, for several reasons, mainly to avoid meeting with settlers who graze their herds there, of course, feeding on wheat and barley in the residents’ territories.
This time we decided to go in and see with our own eyes what the violent settlers did to the school. Deliberate and malicious destruction. Notebooks and books are scattered among the fragments. It is heartbreaking.
I took some books, picked some chrysanthemums and we continued to Shweika on Route 60, where the deported family moved. Upon our arrival, we are greeted by Isma’il, Fares’ son, and his two-year-old toddler son. Fares is not far away, at the edge of the village, watching over his son Jibril who is tending the family flock in the nearby wadi.
From this point you can see Eliashiv Nahum’s farm (Yehuda’s Farm) which is opposite the Sham’ah settlement, and Yanon Levi’s farm, mentioned here at the beginning of the report. He watches and guards.
Guards because Eliashiv Nahum and his gang often come to the family’s territory, threatening and intimidating, and moreover, they physically harmed Fares several times. Their goal is to expel the family again, also from here.
Jewish supremacy is exercised in all territories.
The original pasture was in a flat, comfortable area. After violence and threats, they were forced to move to pastures not far away, but the area is rocky and sloping.
We sat for a short time in the shig (the place to eat) and Jibril calls and reports that Elyashiv’s car has left the farm. We ran to check if he was going in the direction of the pasture, but it turned out that the direction was different. This is how their lives go. Constant fear.
We also usually visited Muhammad, Fares’ brother, and his family, in their house next door. They don’t live there anymore. Muhammad sold his house (for a low amount) and moved to nearby Dahariya, and now has to rent a home. We say goodbye to Fares and Isma’il with sadness.
On our way near the school, we talk to several students. They say that they study only two days a week (we know from visits to other villages). On the rest of the days, they help with grazing.
Why should they learn? Even this right, which is so important and necessary, is taken away from them.
This is the occupation in all its “glory”.
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
Muhammad D.May-13-2025Susiya - at Ahmad and Halima Nawaja'a
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Zanuta
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Zanuta was a small rural Palestinian locality until its demolition. It was situated in the space around the town Dahariya in the South Hebron Hills, about a ten-minute ride from Meitar Checkpoint. There are documented remains of a large Byzantine settlement in the area. Since the Ottoman (Turkish Empire) period (1516-1917) Zanuta was documented as a locality of shepherds and farmers who live in the remains of the ancient structures and the residential caves near them.
Two individual ranches of colonists were created next to Zanuta: Meitarim (of the colonist Yinon Levi) to the east, and Yehudah (of the colonist Elyashiv Nachum) to the north. Endless attacks, harassments and attempt to chase away the Zanuta villagers have originated in these two outposts.
Until the expulsion, four families lived in the village: A-Samama, Al-Tel, Al Batat, and Al-Qaisia. Farming constituted their main economic activity and employed most of the villagers. The total area of the village is about 12,000 dunams, of which about 3,000 are tended, mostly with field crops.
This village has never had a master plan that would legitimize construction permits. The Civil Administration claimed it was too small and the distance to the next town, Dahariya, too great. For this reason, the Israeli authorities pressured the villagers to leave. The colonists did the job for them.
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