At-Tuwani – visiting Hafez Huraini’s family

Place:

A-Tuwani

South Hebron Hills

Susiya

Observers:

Michal (reporting and photographing) and Muhammad (hotographing); Translator: Natanya

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Sep-20-2022

Morning

Susiya - a meeting of tractors and their drivers

Photo:

Michal Tsadik

At-Tuwani - a visit to Hafez Huraini's family

Photo:

Michal Tsadik

Michal (reporting and photographing) and Muhammad (hotographing); Translator: Natanya

At-Tuwani:

We went to visit Hafez Huraini’s family, who was attacked and beaten with an iron rod by a settler from a Havat Ma'on, while he was working his land. Both his hands were broken and the settler was injured. Only Hafez was arrested by the army. There was a false version spread by the IDF and the media, according to which it was a lynch. The result: the victim is arrested and the attacker is presented as the victim.

We came to express our anger and shame on behalf of the women of Machsom Watch for what was done there. We spoke with his wife and daughter who told in English how her father was attacked in his orchard, and how much they suffer regularly from the settlers who live on Havat Ma'on, which is an illegal outpost.

The daughter said that now the plot has been declared a closed military area, and only her mother, Aisha, Hafez's wife, is allowed to enter there twice a day, to water the trees and vegetables. No one else from the family or the volunteers is allowed to enter there.

At the court session held on September 19, the police requested an extension of detention by 9 days (it is not clear for what purpose), but the judge only approved an extension of three more days.

We'll see if the system admits the serious mistake, and the attacker will be arrested

Susiya:

We were surprised to see a gathering of dozens of tractors with their drivers. It turns out that this is a meeting with the representatives of the Palestinian Authority, who are interested in the concentrated series of driving aand vehicle licensing tests. This way they will avoid receiving frequent reports from the Israel Police, every time they go out to cultivate their fields.

As we left there, a police car arrives and asks for our IDs as well. We were photographed.

In the last two weeks, everyone from the security forces who meets us asks to find out who we are, why we came, and also asks to check our documents.

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.

At-Tuwani

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The locals came to At-Tuwani during the 20th century from the village of Yatta. They settled in abandoned ruins, utilizing the arable land, pastures for grazing sheep and the abundance of natural caves for habitation. The residents who settled in the caves came from families who could not purchase land for houses in the mother villages, as well as shepherds who did not have enough land to graze. They were joined by clan members who quarreled with other families in the mother locality.
Some of the residents today live in concrete buildings built above the caves. In the area of the village are several water cisterns and an ancient water well called Ein at-Tuwani. Local residents are forced to buy water in containers and transport them through many road blocks to the village. With the help of international organizations, an electrical system was installed in the village. In the late 90s of the 20th century, an elementary school was established in the serving several small villages in the area.
In 2004, MachsomWatch began visiting and reporting from the Khirbet Tuwani cave village, which suffers badly from the settlers of nearby outposts, and especially from the extremist Ma'on outpost. . The settlers contaminate cisterns, poison the flocks and uproot trees.

Particularly notable is the harassment of children from the surrounding villages on their way to school in at-Tuwani, so much so that military escort of children is required to separate them from the attackers (this was arranged following an initiative of the organization's members). In the past year, the escort has been without the vital presence of overseas volunteers.

Near at-Tuwani there are several families who have returned to the caves due to the incessant demolitions of the civil administration info-icon (as there is a total construction ban in all of area C). Destroyed are not only residential and agricultural buildings, but also water pipes, machinery. Even water cisterns are clogged up. at-Tuwani residents have created an association for non-violent demolition protests, but in the past year the army’s harsh harassment and settler violence have intensified and escalated. The incident of the small generator confiscation, which left a young man paralyzed, is one of many examples - any legitimate protection of property rights leads to violence and even shootings by the army and the civil administration.

Updated April 2022

Apr-10-2024

Muhammad D.

Sa'ir - Yael and Ahmad

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