Khalet al-Daba' - settler terror

1. We went out into the field despite warnings from family members concerned for our safety.

2. We buy food supplies in Hurra for two families in Khalat al-Daba (in the southeast of al-Tawni) according to their request, financed by our members. They cannot leave the village because their vehicles have been confiscated and they are surrounded by settlers and the army.

3. Meitar checkpoint is desolate. There is no movement of laborers to work in Israel.

4. Driving east on Route 60 to meet Amr Abu Awad. Settlers burned his compound as we reported and he now lives in Wadi Nias, at the entrance to Samu. Abu Saf, whoi went through heart surgery safely, now lives in Samua with his family.

5. Driving to the right to road 317, towards Susia and Tawani. South of the road, the access roads to Revan are blocked by piles of dirt. Two elderly Palestinian women drag themselves on foot towards the village, one using a cane. A military vehicle passes them. The entrance to the village is roughly in front of the rear southern entrance to Samu (the main entrance - on road 60), on the way back we saw how people and supplies are transferred from vehicle to vehicle in the "back to back" method, because they are not allowed to travel freely from Samu to the villages, and the army checks them.

6. Cameras are now installed at the entrance to the Palestinian Susia: Big Brother monitors all movements to and from Susia.

7. We pass Tawani and move forward on a dirt road only for 4x4 vehicles. A guard tent was set up by the people of Umm Fakra for guarding at night. The army demands that the tent be destroyed.

8. We arrived in Khalat al-Daba, to visit Jaber Ali Dababsa. Two of his five sons are in the house, helping us unload the groceries we brought. Jaber hosts us in his paradise in the shade of the trees, on synthetic grass. All of Palestine could have been such a paradise if not for the determination of the state-backed settlers to destroy it. Jaber emphasizes that there have never been any security problems with the residents of the area, In other words, the only reason for the effort to expel them from the so-called "fire zone" where the settlers are allowed to live and prosper and expand, is ethnic cleansing. In the village of Khalat al-Daba live approximately 90 people, all of them from the Dababsa clan, about half of them children. There is a small school of 4 classes, part of the "Tahadi" (Challenge) schools established by the Palestinian Authority as an educational response to the children of the remote villages. There are children who come to school in Tawani by bus (which we helped finance). But now the schools are not working because the teachers cannot come from Yatta.

Three weeks ago, settlers arrived in military uniforms (they are now being recruited into the IDF reserves as part of the GMR (Area Defense). They broke windows in the school, beat people. They detained his uncle at the base near Susia, when he was released he was taken to a hospital because he was bruised. They also entered three houses and carried out a sort of violent search: they broke windows, a television and a washing machine. They confiscated Jaber's computer and also a watch he bought in the private market on the grounds that it was stolen IDF property. The Palestinians turned to the Jerusalem-based lawyer Kemer Masherki in search of the uncle, as they thought he was being held by the police. It turned out that he was in the hands of other security forces. They also engaged attorney Riham (details with Nasr from Susia). They fixed the windows because winter is approaching and you have to prepare for the rain.

Jaber tells us that his father was born here in a cave. The clinic was in Hebron, at Aliya Hospital, where he was born. Part of the family lived in Kfar Carmel, part studied in Yatta, he only studied up to the 8th grade because of blood feud problems. The civil administration and the army have already destroyed his house five times, the last time in 2021, claiming that the construction was illegal. They also confiscated tents, uprooted trees, and destroyed five water cisterns.  And now the bullying is increasing, every day they come to intimidate, drive ATVs around the houses, enter the houses, all while accompanied by the army. Sometimes there are army officers who are not violent settlers (like Issachar Talia...) who are willing to listen, but don't really make a change on the ground. Some people broke down and moved to Carmel.

9. On the way back, in Wani, we meet an elderly Jewish volunteer from Australia. The BBC just came to interview Hafez Hareini, the owner of the land near the Ma'on farm. Hareini is the man who was attacked on his land by a settler who broke both his hands and it was he who was arrested and taken to the Ofer camp. Near his house there is a kind of hotel for the volunteers who come to Tawani.

10. At the exit from Tawani on the road, near the road leading to Yatta, greeting signs for the IDF soldiers are hanging on a water dispenser on behalf of the 'residents of Mount Hebron'.

11. On the front page of the Haaretz newspaper the day after our shift, a notice from the“Yesh Gvul" (literally “there’s a limit) movement, describing the transfer carried out by the settlers. Khalat al-Deba is included in the list, among the communities brutally attacked.