Susiya - Settlers from the Susiya settlement beat and scare the children

A shift in Susiya

Near the prosperous and growing settlement of Susiya, Palestinians who were evicted from the archaeological site of Susiya years ago live in constant threat and every time the Palestinians are threatened by evicting them from their lands although they have Kushans (legal documents of ownership) from the time of the Turks.

We have written a lot about Azzam and his wife, about Nasr Nawaj’a, a B'Tselem activist who was arrested more than once and whom we accompanied during his arrest and trial. This time we came after several phone calls with Fatma, Nasr Nawaj’a's sister. She is a social activist, a lawyer, who was also involved in the days when we took the children to the sea in the past years.

Now she also talked about everyone's economic plight because they are not allowed to enter Israel to work nor are they allowed to work the olive groves, vineyards and fields on the grounds that are too close to the settlement. She asked for our help.

It seems to us that she thinks and expects much more than we do. I explained to her our situation and our limitations. She continues to hope for financial help now in organizing camps in the summer for the children of the villages.

The roads have been closed since October 7 and once again we parked the vehicle beyond the dirt and stone barrier. The young people of the families came to unload the food which we had brought and did so back to back.

According to Fatma’s request, we bought many small packages of basic necessities so that she would distribute equally to 10 families.

She told about Ahmad Nawaj’a who lives closest to the Susiya settlement and because of that he suffers the most from the settlers' harassment. But other families there are also suffering from the settlement Susiya. According to her, it is mainly young people come who beat, shout, scare the children who are most afraid at nights . According to her, many children are post-traumatic and have been treated in recent months by psychologists and human rights doctors. They were also visited by settlers posing as uniforms and threatening all the time. This morning, before we arrived, she talks about a settler riding a horse who rides around to scare people. The horse stumbled and the rider also fell, and she tells how everyone rejoiced at this sight.

Fatma knows the whole area and its people very well. She also talked about children from Sha'ab al Butum who hid under the beds when their houses were searched. They now wet themselves at night and have difficulty functioning. They also need psychological treatment. She requested time an again that we continue to be in touch with her and visit more. She promised to send videos of the incidents of harassment of the settlers. We also visited Azzam and Wadha. We have reported more than once about them, their nobility and the light of their faces even in these difficult times. He now builds beautiful wooden planters and offers them for sale. I posted a picture of their size and price on WhatsApp for all those interested.