South Hebron

South HebronThursday morning, January 27, 2005. Observers: HB, YLDeparture from Shoqet Junction at 7:45, return 10:30.Summary: The roads and the checkpoints were quiet. The schoolchildren are still on vacation and return to school on Saturday. All dirt paths and roads leading to the main roads are still blocked, with enlarged earthworks. A blue [Israeli] police unit stopped a tractor driver but let him be when they found he was an unregistered citizen. We searched for and found the area where Israel is building a new road on Palestinian private lands, talked to the people and took photos, and passed the information on to the Rabbis for Human Rights organization. Sansana checkpoint: IDF soldiers replacing Border Patrol. Nothing happening.Rt 317:Livneh junction: the checkpoint is being built up into a minor army base.Arad junction: no people coming or going.Susia: new trees were planted by the Jewish settlers, right where the Palestinian wells are. The settlers are trying to claim these stretches of land as their own in this manner. Rt 356: By what used to be Asam Yakinton checkpoint, a blue [Israeli] police unit stops a tractor driver who is taking his wife and two babies (held in her arms) on the tractor. In their attempt to fine him, they find out that he has no driver’s license and no Israeli-issued ID card. When they look him up on the computer, he does not even have an ID number – had never been issued one! The policeman is reluctant to take the man in, according to the policeman it will be conducting an arrest for a traffic violation, and that seems a little harsh to him. The man evidently has attempted in the past to create an Israeli ID, but without success. He is in his mid to late twenties. The man is warned not to drive the tractor again without a license, and certainly not in the manner that he took his wife and children.Zif Junction: the yellow gate is open.Bnei Hever Junction: Military jeep is securing electric company works.Rt. 60Sheep Junction: pedestrians crossing and no military presence.Dura-al Fawwar Junction: A military jeep is providing security for electric company works.Samoa: blocks are as always.Dahariya: large earthworks roadblock on road after the Tene settlement. The yellow gate from Rt 60 is closed as usual.There is very little activity on the roads – only a couple of Palestinian taxis and other cars, and very little military presence.Land confiscation:In the triangle formed by the Sheep Junction, and Yata and between Bnei Hever and Kiryat Arba, the Ministry of Housing is pursuing a project of building a new road. The reason for the road, it is said, is for creating a border around (Israeli) national land. Rumors of this came with the initiation of this work on Monday. On Tuesday the village head waited for MachsomWatch to do their regular stop at the Sheep Junction in order to alert them to this new land confiscation and road building. The residents and owners of the land are trying to organize a movement to put a stop the road from being built right inside and across their lands. A bulldozer has been carving out the road which loops back and forth over these hills, cutting though olive groves, fruit trees and around homes. An owner of a fruit grove was told he has seven days to destroy his grove, including its stone fence and a stone building, to allow space for the road. The Israeli government claims that this is Israeli national land, while the local people have certificates of land ownership dating back to the Ottoman period. The residents and land owners are in touch with a local lawyer, and Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) have also become involved. We walked around there to see what was happening, spoke to the people, made the contacts between them and RHR, and took photos.The contractor (Jewish) threatened to break our bones if we photographed him. We did, and he didn’t.