Tag: Suseya Settlement

“We will not give up; to give up is to die” – Susiya resists mass demolition orders

27th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Susiya, Occupied Palestine

Today, June 27, 2013, the Israeli Civil Administration served thirty-four demolition orders in the Susiya village, which is in Area C and surrounded by the Israeli colony of Suseya. Due to previous demolition orders, every existing structure in the village is now threatened with destruction if they do not obtain permits by July 17.

Original copies of all the demolition orders served today (Photo by ISM)

The residents of Susiya include more than thirty families, who were all evacuated from their homes in the old Susiya village and forced to relocate 200 meters to the southeast, in 1986. Susiya residents collaborate with the nearby villages in Masafer Yatta, a closed military “firing zone,” also in Area C and threatened with demolition. On July 15, a hearing will decide whether all the villages in Masafer Yatta can be evacuated by the military. Hafez Huraini, leader of the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee and himself a refugee from 1948, emphasizes that the villagers in Susiya are targeted simply for existing, so everything they do from grazing sheep to visiting family members in the nearby city of Yatta draws violence from the Israeli military and the local settlers.

Susiya has faced six mass demolitions since the establishment of the Israeli Suseya colony in 1983. The last wave of demolitions in 2011 repeatedly displaced 37 people including 20 children [1]. Residents of Susiya, most of whom rely on subsistence agriculture, are subject to some of the worst living conditions in the West Bank. Their houses were destroyed by Israeli forces and they now live in tents and shelters, paying more than five times the price nearby villages pay for water and consuming less than 1/3 of the WHO standard per capita [2]. Settlers have violently denied Susiya residents access to over 300 hectares of their land, including 23 water cisterns. Documented cases of settler violence include beatings, verbal harassment and destruction of property. Settlers then annex parts of the land by exploiting the Palestinian owners’ inability to access their land.

Of over 120 complaints that have been filed based on monitoring from Rabbis for Human Rights, regarding settler attacks and damage to property, around 95 percent have been closed with no action taken. In 2010, when 55 Susiya residents petitioned the High Court to be granted access to their land, the State responded that it intended to map land ownership of the area. Since then they have only closed to settlers 13% of the land Palestinians have been denied access to, reversing only one incursion [3].

Susiya has been the site of creative non-violent resistance for years, resistance that is continually met with brutality. Events have included marches, picnics on land likely to be confiscated, and Palestinian “outposts.” This coming Saturday Susiya will be part of a festival in the South Hebron Hills aimed at raising awareness about the situation of Masafer Yatta residents and stress their right to remain on their land [4]. In the words of Hafez Huraini, coordinator of the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee, “We will not give up.”

Sources:

[1] Strickland, Patrick O. “Palestine’s Front Line: The Struggle for Susiya.” Palestine Note RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2013.

[2] “Susiya: At Imminent Risk of Forced Displacement.” Susiya: At Imminent Risk of Forced Displacement – OCHA Factsheet (30 March 2012). N.p., Mar. 2012. Web. 27 June 2013.

[3] “South Hebron Hills.” Khirbet Susiya. N.p., 01 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 June 2013.

[4] Al Mufaqarah. “Al Mufaqarah R-Exist.” Weblog post. Al Mufaqarah RExist. N.p., 24 June 2013. Web. 27 June 2013.

Tent demolition in Susiya, South Hebron Hills

by Wyatt Black
1 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the morning of November 28th, numerous soldiers came to the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills, unannounced from the nearby settlement, which is also called Susiya. The army jeeps and construction equipment came rolling in around eight o’clock and quickly went to work without giving any information as to why they were invading someone’s private land, and proceeded to demolish a tent in the village.
Esha Ishboal erected a tent two years ago so that his workers could have some shade while picking olives on one of his families’ properties in Susiya, which is south of the city of Al Khalil (Hebron). It was a simple structure, not dirty or old. It had a metal frame and was almost always open on all sides but one, just enough to block some wind. Here Esha would invite his friends to have tea, or as in my case he’d ask a stranger if they would like some hospitality. That was the situation on his farm a couple weeks ago at least.
The table and chairs were spared but the tent itself was leveled. This was an especially lazy demolition since it wouldn’t have taken a bulldozer to bring the tent to the ground. A couple of soldiers could have done it in less than half an hour.

Esha Ishboal looks at the remains of his tent after the demolition

Wyatt Black is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

Settlers desperately try to fit the role by stealing olives

by Aida Gerard

25 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Tuesday, illegal settlers from the Susiya settlement harvested the olive trees belonging to the Abu Sabha family from Susiya and Yatta, South Hebron Hills.

Settlers pick olives from Palestinian trees – Click here for more images

Around 12 o’ clock a villager from the area spotted two settlers picking olives from the land of Abu Sabha. He alerted the police, the District Coordination Office (DCO) and international observers who then were the first to arrive at the scene. When the settlers were asked to stop stealing the olives they claimed ownership of the land and warned the observers from setting foot on the land.

Israeli military arrived and they reluctantly called the police and the DCO for the second time, who then arrived and engaged in a lengthy discussion with the settlers. After a couple of hours the picked olives were confiscated and the land declared a closed military area.

The DCO said that the olives would stay in their custody until the Israeli court makes a decision on who is the rightful owner of the land. Except from the few olive trees next to Road 60, all of the Abu Sabha land in Susiya is occupied by the settlers who built a settlement there in 1982 and have continued to expand since then. The fear expressed by the villagers, is of course that when the police and army leave the land, the settlers will immediately return and continue their violation against the Palestinians and their land.

Last year when the Abu Sabha family had picked their olive trees, the settlers stole their harvest. When the family complained to the Israeli police, the police closed the case citing that the settlers had already turned the olives into oil.

Aida Gerard is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israeli settlers set fire to a house-tent in the Palestinian village of Susiya

10 September 2011 | Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

At-Tuwani – During the night between the 8th and the 9th of September settlers from the Israeli settlement of Suseya set fire to a house-tent in the Palestinian village of Susiya.

Around 1:00 AM the settlers took a tire that was inserted in a nearby wall, set fire to it, and threw it against the outside wall of the house. The plastic tent covering the house took fire immediately. The owner, awakened by the smoke, was able to move out a of the tent. A gas cylinder that was near the fire. Once out of the burning tent the man saw some torch lights in the valley below the village heading toward the settlement of Suseya.

When Israeli army and police arrived, called by the villagers, the lights were still in sight but neither the soldiers nor the policemen followed or stopped the people carrying them.

The fire was extinguished with the water of a nearby villagers’ tank. The house owner was taken to the hospital for breathing diseases caused by the smoke.

According to Palestinians, the Israeli army did not let Palestinian firemen, coming from the nearby city of Yatta, reach the fire by threatening them.

The house owner told us the next morning: “They (the Israelis, ed) never help Palestinian people. Despite it all there were human beings in danger, someone had to stop the fire, someone had to help us. But this is the occupation.”

Situated in the South Hebron Hills, the Palestinian village of Susiya is exactly between the old, archeological site of Suseya and the outpost of the Israeli settlement Suseya. This is the last of several acts of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against the village. On December 28th 2010 took place a similar incident: settlers set fire to another house-tent. The settlers’ goal is to push Palestinians out of their own land in order to enlarge the settlement.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://goo.gl/Z3yXn ; http://goo.gl/w7yPW (EAPPI)
Video of the incident: http://goo.gl/iOWUv

For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
EAPPI SHH, 022 27 42 94