Masafer Yatta - attacks by settlers

Place:

Masafer Yatta

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Tags:

Settler-colonists injure Palestinians body, soul and property

Observers:

Michal; Translator: Natanya

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Apr-11-2023

Morning

Masafer Yatta - vandalizing sheep fodder

Photo:

Unknown

Masafer Yatta - sheep killed be settlers

Photo:

Unknown

We went to meet Nasser at Susiya. In the absence of a vehicle suitable for the stormy and muddy weather, we met at his house before he left in a vehicle suitable again for Masafer Yatta. He told what happened at the weekend.

According to him, the settlers from Mitzpe Yair came to Ma’in and Carmil (the Palestinian villages adjacent to the settlements with these names). According to the settlers, their sheep had been stolen and they came to look for them without the army or police.

They came with ATVs (private militias in the spirit of the State Security Commissioner).

Nasser says: We don't know if sheep were indeed stolen or if they were looking for an excuse to make a mess. After all, if this is a serious and genuine complaint, they could come with the army and police and search.

In this place they shot at a Palestinian vehicle between Fahith and Halawa. They killed 3 sheep and tore sacks of barley which is the food of the sheep.

To my question, what did people and the authorities do? Nasser explains:

At the request of the people, the Palestinian DCO spoke with the Israeli DCO. Its people said they would send people and they arrived on Thursday after many hours. The people of Markaz and Halawa also filed a complaint with the Hebron police....

Nasser says skeptically: Let's see if they do anything…

Two days before we came, the settlers came again to look for the stolen sheep in two vans and an ATV. They came with clubs.

This is what the damage looks like and this is what the rioters with the sticks look like.

In Susiya, we met young volunteers who belong to the Center for Jewish Non-violence Organization, CJNV. Most of them from the United States. It’s similar to the Italian organization Operation Dove. They live there in cycles of 3 months and accompany the shepherds and help as much as is requested.

On the way back we met a shepherd with his sheep, an acquaintance of ours from Zenuta, who talked about the settler from Havat Yehuda about whom we reported last week.

According to him, in the last few days, the settlers released their sheep on their sprouting fields and they eat everything.

Again the rainy and foggy weather and without a suitable vehicle did not allow us to get closer and try to see the settler and his exploits and we were content with the Palestinian report.

(The photographs I received from Nasser Nawaja’a from Susiya).

Location Description

Yata / Southern Hebron hills

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Yatta is a city located in the South Hebron Hills region. It is located in the border zone between the fertile area of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants. The surrounding villages are called Masafar 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, a number of 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 the withholding of 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. Road blocks 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

Apr-10-2024

Muhammad D.

Sa'ir - Yael and Ahmad

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Susiya

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The Palestinian area lies between the settlement of Susya and a military base.
The residents began to settle in areas outside the villages in the 1830s and lived in caves, tents and sukkot. To this day they maintain a traditional lifestyle and their livelihood is based on agriculture and herding. Until the 1948 war, the farmers cultivated areas that extended to the Arad area. As a result of the war, a significant portion of their land left on the Israeli side was lost. After the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation, military camps were established in the area, fire zones and nature reserves were declared, and the land area was further reduced.

The Jewish settlement in Susya began in 1979. Since then, there has been a stubborn struggle to remove the remains of Palestinian residents who refuse to leave their place of birth and move to nearby town Yatta. With the development of a tourist site in Khirbet Susya in the late 1980s (an ancient synagogue), dozens of families living in caves in its vicinity were deported. In the second half of the 1990s, a new form of settlement developed in the area - shepherds' farms of individual settlers. This phenomenon increased the tension between the settlers and the original, Palestinian residents, and led to repeated harassment of the residents of the farms towards the Palestinians. At the same time, demolition of buildings and crop destruction by security forces continued, as well as water and electricity prevention. In the Palestinian Susya, as in a large part of the villages of the southern Hebron Mountains, there is no running water, but the water pipe that supplies water to the Susya Jewish settlement passes through it. Palestinians have to buy expensive water that comes in tankers. Solar electricity is provided by a collector system, installed with donation funds. But the frequent demolitions in the villages do not spare water cisterns or the solar panels and power poles designed to transfer solar electricity between the villages.

Updated April 2021, Anat T.