Zenuta - settler terror
The village of Zenuta is on Route 60, west of Meitarim Junction. The road is paved on the village lands meaning it divides it into two, the part south of the road suffers more because it is close to the new Ettinger farm. It is possible that the farm contains a small plot which has been sold to the settlers, although the Palestinians are not allowed to sell land to the settlers. Now the settlers are taking over the surrounding lands, trying to isolate the village by closing it off from all sides to the south.
The village has about 300 residents. The school with the Palestinian flag was built by Fatma, a teacher from the Idna area.
Following the quarrel with the settlers, 3 members of the village are currently in prison. Council Chairman Faiz Ethel, who is a doctor working in Dahariya, went on trial today in the Ofer Court near Beit El, so we get an update from his brother who is acting for him, Adel. With him is also a nephew, Hazem, a lawyer who studied international law in Algeria and now specializes in a law firm in Dahariya.
Last Thursday, the shepherds were with the herd, 3 km from the settlers’ farm. The settlers sent a skimmer and also 4 settlers who threw stones at the sheep, beat pregnant sheep, all in an attempt to take over the herd. The Palestinians tried to stand between the flock and the settlers. The soldiers watched from afar and did nothing until the settlers called them to help. The soldiers then threw a noise bomb , their dogs attacked the sheep and killed three. The village called in the police who questioned the shepherds. The one Palestinian showed how his hand had been wounded when he was trying to get away. The settlers showed the police their photos in which of course only the Palestinians are seen without the context of defending themselves and the flock against the settlers’ violence. Unfortunately the Palestinians only took pictures at the end of the incident. They ask for a good camera with zoom (B’Tselem’s cameras are not good enough to document such incidents).
The police arrested 3 shepherds – Salem Ribhi al-Batat, his brother Fadi Mus and’ad Sliman Hadirat. They were taken to the Kiryat Arba police and today they will be brought before a judge. The settler was also taken to Kiryat Arba but was immediately released.
In addition to the three sheep killed, there were ten abortions, 12 lame sheep being hit by stones in their legs, 8 paralyzed and lying down, the dog badly wounded, all according to the diagnosis of a veterinarian brought from Dahariya. This is a large financial loss for an entire year. Adel went to Dahariya today to buy medicine according to the veterinarian’s instructions.
The owner of the sheep, the father of the detainees, took the photos and certificates of the veterinarian and yesterday filed a complaint with the Kiryat Arba police. The policemen there spoke to the court in Ofer and here they hope it will help.
Later in the day we were updated: The police asked to extend the detention by five days, the court allowed two days and the trial would be held the next day.
The attorneys who are handling are from the Rabbis for Human Rights and, regarding the lands, Adv. Kamar Mishraki says that the Civil Administration will draw boundaries between the settlers and Zenuta. It will be an achievement for the settlers tryinag to take over the lands.
Further down the road in front of Shima – a settler farm. What else is new ….
South Hebron Hills
See all reports for this place-
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
A Palestinian residentMay-12-2025A sheep carcass dumped by settler Shimon Atiya from the Shorashim farm near the school in Umm Qusa.
-
Zanuta
See all reports for this place-
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.
-
