Nov. 22: Israeli Military Destroys Sha’ab El-Butum Homes

Sha’ab El-Butum is in north-northwestern Massafer Yatta. This is where Umm Barid’s remaining family takes shelter during the night.  A map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

Wednesday morning started badly. At the entrance to the Sussya settlement, a long truck hauler was parked, carrying two yellow tractors, a bugger and a wide-shuffle-dozer. Near them stood four white army pickup trucks, an army jeep and a police jeep. Both secured and covered with netting. And lots of soldiers. Not a single person in Massafer Yatta is ignorant of what this means: homes will be demolished today. 

Rumor spread quickly in the villages. Each family wondered: would it sleep tonight in its home or outdoors? Would anything of its property be salvaged? or everything buried under piles of broken concrete? There is hardly a house in the entire area that has not had a demolition order. Many homes have already been demolished once or twice or three or four times. The orders may be carried out without any previous warning.

Note: Massafer Yatta Palestinians have no “legal” way to build a home. In the West Bank’s “Area C”, the terms “legal/illegal construction” are downright Orwellian. The Israeli military’s deceptively-named “Civil Administration” has the formal authority to approve or deny construction in “Area C” – and it denies nearly all Palestinian requests, no matter how meticulously prepared. And this has gotten even worse in recent years.

At the same time, “Area C” Palestinians see their Israeli-settler neighbors (all settlements are also part of “Area C”) build new neighborhoods at a breathtaking pace, and brand-new illegal Israeli outposts are established like mushrooms after the rain to make Palestinian lives unbearable. Even the outposts, officially illegal even under Israel’s pro-settler legal system, are immediately connected to the power and water grids, and to access roads. Most of the time the authorities provide them with red carpets, not with demolition orders.

Half an hour later, the news arrives: the demolition convoy has turned towards Sha’ab al-Butum, a peaceful, picturesque village sitting on both sides of a small ravine with olive groves. The hamlet is very close to Avigail settlement and does not threaten it. Proof – Avigail is not even surrounded by a fence.

Picture of Avigail settlement, taken from Sha’ab El-Butum. Note the lack of any fence.

Several years ago, an evil settler from the Nablus area erected an outpost on a hill overlooking the Sha’ab El-Butum. Since then, everything has changed. Pogroms, denial of grazing, ATV invasions among the houses, threats, destruction – what have you. And since October 7^th everything has gotten much worse, of course. 

Demolitions are the responsibility of the Israeli military’s deceptively-named “Civil Administration”, which is supposed to care for Palestinians’ needs but only cares about demolishing their homes and lives. Since the war broke out, the Administration is no longer answering any Palestinian inquiries or requests, under the pretext that now is wartime and there are no people staffing it. Until Wednesday, these weeks also saw no house demolitions in Massafer Yatta, but the temporary lull is now over. Not only are the settlers and soldiers constantly harassing the Palestinian villagers in order to ignite the conflict in the West Bank as well – the Israeli military’s deceptively-named “Civil Administration” decided that now of all times, it is urgent to demolish several homes and make some more families miserable. 

The axe today fell on two families from the Jabarin clan. Two families lost their homes and belongings, a moment before the freezing cold of Massafer Yatta winter. Who cares? 

We arrived at noon. We did not know the families, and asked our friend Z. to lead us. He insisted that we go by the schoolhouse first. Last night settlers came riding their ATV and destroyed – tore down the cameras, punctured the water tank, sabotaged the drainage system. 

The school, like most schools in this area, has not been in session since the outbreak of the war and for fear of settlers. Earlier, last year, saw a lengthy teachers’ strike. Consistency and continuity of studies, then, are at a great peril. 

From the schoolhouse the vandals proceeded to the olive grove of one of the villagers. They broke down the fence and made rounds on their ATV, trampling and breaking the young trees. We wished to proceed to the demolition site, but Z. would not give in, going from tree to tree, showing us the tire marks, and lifting the broken trunks so we could see the destruction. 

We continued to I.’s family, where the entire compound had been demolished. Beside the rubble, in a circle of plastic chairs sat members of the family and guests from the village. The man of the house poured us bitter coffee from his thermos and told us what happened. First the destruction forces ruined the sheep pens, burying troughs and feed. In the few minutes they had left, the family members took out some clothes and things but most remained buried and smashed under the rubble: the kitchen, the heating system, TV, a family’s entire life. 

Did you get any warning? Nothing, we were told. Once, long ago, we had a demolition order. We passed it onto the lawyer and have heard nothing more. Until this morning. 

The neighbors had a residential building demolished, one that the man of the house had built for his second wife and her children. Until the destroyers finished with the first project, the neighbor managed to salvage most of his belongings. When we came, we saw the beginning of the re-building project, rickety walls of bricks that the children began to build – according to the man of the house, half laughing and partly embarrassed, and poured us another cup of coffee. 

One of the children kicked a half-blown-up football at me. I kicked it back with my untrained leg and strained a muscle in my thigh. I don’t know whether this symbolizes anything, but I am still limping a bit.

Ya’ir, on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron]

Nov. 21: Violently Displaced Tuba Family now in Tent, Struggling for Food

On Tuesday, November 21^st VG activists visited Tuba, in the eastern part of Massafer Yatta. A map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

To our dear friends,

On Tuesday, November 21^st, we made our way to Tuba, to the robbed cave of widow S., her 27-year-old daughter D, and her 16-year-old son I. We have already written about this place and this specific family several times in the past few weeks. With their residence further away from the center of Tuba village, the settlers harass the family determinedly and constantly, to make them leave. For fear of these nightly “encounters” with the settlers and/or soldiers, or the settlers’ army or the military settlers (all of the above are possible), the family decided to spend their days in Tuba, and come evening – walk their flock to the nearby Safai village and spend the night there. They have no orderly place there. The sheep sleep in a cave that is unfit for human habitation, and they sleep outdoors.

They had done this for about two weeks – until the cold, wind and rain arrived. The elderly mother was persuaded to move to her eldest son in Yatta, the district town. D. Her daughter got sick, but she and brother I. continued their routine – walking with the flock to Tuba in the morning and back to Safai in the evening. In the daytime, in their cave that has been robbed many times by the vandal settlers, they cook their basic food which we bring them, over the small camping gas stove we bought for them. The flock’s feed (most of whose grazing ground has been robbed by the settlers) is supplemented with concentrated feed kept in a special cave near their residential one. Once in a while when we visited, I wondered how come the settlers had not yet reached it. In the beginning of this week, they finally did. Fifteen sacks were ripped by knife at night. The grain was scattered all over. The daughter and son collected whatever they could in order to feed the hungry flock.    

In our present visit we brought them a better tent instead of the one we had brought a week ago, that didn’t stand the rain and wind. This time it’s water-resistant, easy to put up and take down. From now on they will carry their home, their food and cooker on their backs. They cannot leave anything in Tuba.

We put together and disassembled the tent just to demonstrate, and hurried on with our other visits. “Won’t you sit with us for a bit?” D. asked as we were already sitting in the car. My heart ached. More than she needed what we had brought, she needed some human attention by someone from the outside who could understand her predicament. I came out of the car. “Dear D., how long can you go on like this?” I asked her. (It’s a question that she herself had asked weeks ago). D. smiled modestly and knowingly, nodding her head to signify that this was the present situation. I reminded her of the professional course she had begun just before the war, and of her brother’s school studies which he should probably continue, at least through the smartphone application as long as the school itself is still closed. D. looked me in the eye, and kept her silence. When she asked me a few weeks ago whether they should leave, she still looked strong-spirited. Now, there was desperation in her eyes.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Tal Haran; webmaster notes by Assaf]

Nov. 19 2023: Bringing Help into Massafer Yatta is Not Easy

On Sunday, Villages Group activists returned to help the family from Umm Barid in north-central Massafer Yatta, whose property was destroyed by settlers last week. They also visited Susiya, right across the region’s main paved road (Susiya is depicted in brown in the map; the blue area is a newer, Israeli government-subsidized settlement bearing a similar name).  A map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

Dear Friends,

Even without Occupation or settlers or war time, the water economy in this arid, semi-desert area is dire. Massafer Yatta farmers collect rainwater in cisterns and these serve them all year for themselves and their livestock, as well as to irrigate their meager farm patches, for washing and for cleaning. The water in the cisterns usually runs out towards late summer. Since the military Occupation, in the dry months, farmers and shepherds have to purchase water and pay for it 4 times more than the Israeli price. Transporting water to the villages is a daring feat in itself. And the settlers have multiplied the crime by destroying water tanks, demolishing cisterns and at times even poisoning the water.

Last week we visited M.’s family at Umm Barid once again. The first time their home was destroyed, the settlers had already vandalized the water hole nearby. They ruined it and even poured soap into the scant water that remained there from the previous rainy season, to make sure it would be unusable.

M. – whose three rib fractures caused by the colonists during the first demolition rampage do not allow him any physical work – asked his sons to clean up another water hole possessed by the family in the plot of land they inherited. The sons were not quick to agree. The hole is visible to the settlers, so they are afraid. We suggested helping simply by being there. They welcomed our suggestion. We said we would come in the beginning of the week, hoping the rain would wait a day or two. So, we came yesterday, but the weather forecast won out.

In the second demolition, the settlers destroyed the family’s washing machine. In the third rampage, the settlers broke it completely, making sure it would never work again. When we came to visit last week after the third destruction and found out about the final death of the machine, we handed L. the necessary sum of money – put it in her hands, already filled with blisters from hand laundry – to buy a new washing machine that would serve them in their new home, given to them for the time being by a friend from the nearby village of Sha’ab al-Batum. I say ‘for the time being’, and smile bitterly to myself knowing that this is the sneaky hand of the ‘quiet ethnic cleansing’ behind it all.

When we came yesterday regarding the cistern, L. was in Yatta shopping for the new washing machine. Prices have gone up since the war broke out, and now it also had to be transported to the village; no delivery service. But one cannot enter the village with a vehicle because its entrances have all been blocked now [since the start of the war in Gaza] by the Occupation lords. A service taxi brought the machine from Yatta to the main road on the other side of which the village is situated. Army and settler vehicles patrol this road and ambush vehicles of Palestinians, which are usually too old and battered for obtaining a license, in order to confiscate them. Consequently, M., who did have a licensed vehicle which was already destroyed in Umm Barid during the first destruction, could not even ask a neighbor to drive to the village blockage and load the washing machine there.

A donkey would be the typical solution these days. But today we were there. Ehud drove to a point not visible from the road, and family members driving with him passed the machine manually from the opposite slope to the dirt track that leads to the village, crossing the main road and carrying it to the other side. There it was loaded on our car and safely reached its destination.

Presumably I could have just written one sentence: “And they bought a new washing machine” instead of tiring you, the reader, with all the details. Were I to do this, better not write a thing. Sometimes, in order to highlight the heart of the story, you do need the details…

After all this, we visited Susiya. It, too, is blocked. We left our car near the blockage and entered on foot.

On our way back, we carried packages of donated food that were in Susiya but intended to be shared with the inhabitants of Wadi Jeh’eish as well. Since Susiya and Wadi Jeh’eish are both blocked off right now, we were asked to delivered these packages. Our plan: park our car on the main road for a moment fearing the army; Wadi Jeh’eish residents would walk from their car parked carefully off the road, and carry the packages to their car.

We came to the agreed-upon spot on the main road and did not see them. We rode around and back and still did not see them. We called them to understand what happened, and A. told us that settlers on an ATV prevented them from moving their car. A moment later we saw that ATV and its driver galloping back and forth towards us and away, to make clear who is boss around here.

No blood this time, no blows or demolitions witnessed today. But the rage that would not let go reflects our helplessness and frustration in the face of these settlers who control this space and do whatever they please. No salvation, no justice, no law. At home I messaged our friends at Wadi Jeh’eish how hard it is for us that they are facing such terrible times and that we couldn’t help them. They thanked me regardless.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group

Update: a day or two later, Erella and Ya’ir returned to the same place with two other activists. Wadi Jeh’eish residents arrived to the car and took the food packages as originally planned. Perseverance has paid off: no Jewish-supremacist settler was around this time to disrupt the provision of essential food.

Settlers Destroy Home of Remaining Umm Barid Family; Police Unwilling to Record Complaint

Greetings, friends –

After we could not enter Umm Barid on Monday, we were determined to visit there the next time we go to Massafer Yatta, on Wednesday November 15. What the settlers of the ‘green bus outpost’ and the brand-new outpost between Avigail and Umm Barid have perpetrated there is the continuation and exacerbation of reckless evil. [webmaster note: neither of those outposts appear in the map below]

Ancient and modern Jewish history has endured firsthand large quantities of human evil, so each time I am amazed anew when I witness Jewish terrorism, a terrorism that was not born yesterday but that has been growing more powerful every day in the West Bank, in Gaza and inside Israel itself. My closest friend, with whom I travel to Massafer Yatta nearly every day now, in order to help our friends there and support them in their hour of dire need, asked: “Are you still amazed?” And I answer, “Once I am no longer amazed at evildoing, I will no longer be able to be a true healer, as Albert Camus said”. Thus went our conversation on our way to Umm Barid, hoping not to run into soldiers, or settlers, or settlers-soldiers, what have you.

[ Webmaster note: Umm Barid – nisnamed “Umm a-Durit” in some maps – is a small village in the north-central part of Massafer Yatta, close to the larger village of Sha’ab al-Batum. A map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank. ]

In October and early November, settlers who established an outpost between Umm Barid and Avigail after the war broke out, repeatedly invaded M.’s family compound. They completely destroyed its fields and greenhouses, caused extensive damage inside the house, cruelly beat M. and his sons, threatened them, and ordered them at gunpoint to leave immediately. Consequently M. and his family start sleeping at another house in the neighboring village, but in the daytime they continue to stay at their home in Umm Barid and see guests and friends there. Other Umm Barid families have not dared to return home at all. When reporting this, we noted that the settlers are planning their next attack.

People tend to open their hearts at times of distress. Since Palestinians, too, are people (I emphasize this because too many people think otherwise), a generous neighbor offered M. and his family to spend nights at his home in nearby Sha’ab al-Batum. In daytime, the family still works in their property at Umm Barid to rehabilitate it from destruction, and in the evening they crowd into their neighbors’ home for a night’s sleep. They had just finally rebuilt from the destruction of late October and the destruction of early November. The demolition that took place on the night of November 13 is, however, impossible to repair. One would have to rebuild everything from scratch. And it might be all in vain yet again, unless the Occupying State of Israel comes to terms with this Jewish terrorism.

On Sunday evening, while the family was still home, the vandals came on their ATV and with their camera drone photographed the entire compound. At night they came again and destroyed everything indescribably: all the furniture, all the food.

• Last time they poured water over the food stuffs. This time they used ground glass.
• They broke the gas stove,
• They broke the washing machine,
• They broke the windows,
• They broke the walls.
• They killed the chickens in their coop,
• They also killed pigeons and their offspring, which the family raised.
• They demolished the greenhouses,
• and uprooted everything the family had replanted after the previous uprooting.

They destroyed even more and more than what’s written above, everything that had remained intact previously and everything that had been repaired since then.

M., his wife L. and his young daughter F., and the four older sons, tell us and describe it all without anger in their voices, without any tones of vengeance. Only a great sense of sadness mixed with the determination of people who have no intention of giving up their old home.

They went to Kiryat Arba [an urban Israeli settlement in Hebron/Al-Khaleel, where the regional Israeli police station is located] to lodge a complaint with the police. They waited there from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., and the Israeli policeman would not accept their complaint, although by law anyone may lodge a complaint with the police [and even though the Israeli police is the exclusive official address for complaints about suspected settler crimes]. They returned home and called the lawyer who takes care of their affairs. She managed to get the complaint accepted. We will report the results if there are any in the future.

In the meantime, food must be cooked, and laundry taken care of in a large family. We shall help in the purchase of the gas stove and washing machine.

While we were sitting with the family at their neighbor’s home, Z. arrived, another neighbor. His house and olive grove are the closest to Sha’ab al-Batum’s main dirt road . Early last week his children found an unfamiliar object near one of the trees, and alerted their father. Z. identified it immediately as an explosive; this was also written very clearly on the long and narrow object laid there. Z. summoned police that summoned the army, a professional demolition expert came and the charge was detonated. On Monday this week, again such an explosive device was laid in Z.’s olive grove. Again Z. summoned the appropriate bodies, the army came twice, but the device is still laying there, as we see in the picture. There is no limit to the creativity of hatred.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron]

November 13: It Is becoming Really Dangerous

On Nov. 13 Erella and Ehud started their visit right in the heart of Massafer Yatta, where people live precariously in the midst of Israeli-declared “Firing Zone” designated to drive them out. And indeed in 2022 after 22 years of legalistic wrangling, Israel’s “High Court Of Justice” sided with Occupation authorities, and decided Palestinian residents have no right to live there, despite locals having roots there before Israel gained military control in 1967. So residents face imminent eviction. It is hard to get there even in ordinary times, let alone since the Gaza war started.

Greetings, friends –

The autumn that softly caresses the valley, and the curves of the hills sloping down into valleys all the way south to the Arad Plain (inside Israel), know not that they are in fact “Firing Zone 918”. The sky sails above us in marvelous cloud formations and we, driving to our friends in Massafer Yatta, surrender to a moment of illusion, as if there were no war.

H. from Mughayir al-Abed has prosaic problems. All of a sudden three sheep died for some unknown reason. Under the current situation no vet can arrive from Yatta or Hebron. We contacted an Israeli vet whom we know and he gave the best advice he could.

H.’s daughter R., an 11^th-grader, wants to quit school. Even on normal days, “normal” Occupation time, days when the settlers harass them only occasionally and not on a daily basis, she and her 14-year-old sister walk to school at A-Tuwani for an hour-and-a-half each way. But now, since the outbreak of war, there is no in-person schooling. Classes are held over the phone, and last week the phone got tired and stopped working. R. decided she has had enough. She has been missing out on material, and it is difficult anyway because she and her sister only have one phone between them. I spoke with her for a long time and we reached an understanding – we shall bring phones for her and her sister, and studies will continue.

As we were sitting in H.’s cave, our phone rang ominously. Our friend M. from Umm Barid was asking us to come quickly. Settlers from the outpost near Avigail vandalized his home and farmland for the third time in a short while [we were there last week, after one of the attacks]. The photos M. sent on Whatsapp were appalling. We were sorry to get out of the Massafer Yatta “Firing Zone” into which we managed to enter today without the army stopping us; to leave before we could get to other families we had planned to visit – but we answered M.’s call.

Ascending a moderate slope on a narrow dirt road, our Subaru carried us towards Sha’ab Al Butum, en route to Umm Barid. [see map below for the approximate route between the two villages, in blue]

Suddenly we saw a military vehicle blocking our way. We drove up close. From about ten meters we noticed that four of the six soldiers in the vehicle were pointing their guns at us. One of them gestured, unclearly – what did they want? For us to stop? To drive closer? To turn about?

We drove closer slowly and carefully. Then the rifles were pointing even more accurately, and the gesturing hand became even more agitated. We stopped. Almost at once I swiftly imagined several scenarios – I saw myself telling the soldiers that after all we are in Area C, outside the “Firing Zone”, and Israeli citizens may travel such areas as freely as they wish. But I saw these settler-soldiers’ eyes, blazing hate and dripping arrogance, noted their rifles continuing to point right at us – and said to Ehud: “Turn around and drive back as fast as you can.”

We did not reach M. and his family who had summoned us. We went home. My soul filled with helpless rage.

We too can be shot like ducks, just as they do to Palestinians.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group (translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron)

Settlers Rampage, Destroy Palestinian Wind Turbine in Wadi Jeh’eish near Susiya

On Sunday November 12, Villages Group activists visited Wadi Jeh’eish, at the western edge of Massafer Yatta. For a larger map of the region see here.

Dear friends,

On a hill sloping down to Wadi Jeh’eish (“donkeys ravine”), two families from Susiya – 2.5km to the north – erected their tents in 1986, after being expelled from their caves to make way for an Israeli “National Park” (these families were expelled from their caves once before, when their village of Qaryatain inside Israel was ethnically cleansed in 1950). They had farmland in Wadi Jeh’eish, and sought refuge there.

We first met T. and her husband H. in 2008. That summer, four masked settlers from Sussya settlement beat them up as they were watering their flock from the cistern situated on their own land. T.’s head was smashed by a club and she was hospitalized at Beer Sheva’s Soroka hospital. H. was hospitalized in Yatta with a lighter wound. At the time we were asked by a common friend to visit T. at Soroka, as the family lacked entry permit into Israel. That’s how we first met her. Since then, our ties have tightened. Like a family, says T. The rest is history.

We have also known A. and L. from Wadi Jeh’eish for years. A., too had been beaten up in the past by vandals from the Sussya settelment, and since war broke out last month, he has already been beaten up twice more. These blows are accompanied by humiliations and threats. On days without blows, the settlers rampage during the night, arriving on ATVs or on foot, tearing up window screens and threatening with their rifles. All this is now at the hands of the settlers – no longer clubs but guns, dressed either as civilians or posing as soldiers, and doing whatever they please without any intervention. The army, police, the military’s “Civil Administration” – none of them arrive even when contacted in real time.

We had not visited our friends at Wadi Jeh’eish since the outbreak of war because the army and settlers have blocked all access to the village [even though it is only a few hundred meters from the highway – see map]. Finally, on Sunday we went there on foot. We could no longer do with phone conversations only. A few days ago, a military watchtower was erected next to Wadi Jeh’eish. On the night between Saturday November 11 and Sunday November 12, at 2 AM, the settlers came again. Four of them, on two ATVs. They smashed the wind turbine that produces electricity for Wadi Jeh’eish. “The military watchtower is sometimes manned and other times not”, said H., and A. who lives even closer to the military tower confirmed this.

“In the summer we can make do only with the solar panels for electric power. But now it’s autumn and then winter, and we need the wind turbine”, says H. His voice bore no anger and no vulgar curse about this destruction. Only the resilient presence of one who already knows that he is helpless to change things, but refuses to give up his inner freedom. A complaint was lodged by the lawyer, and we sent photos. “It helps”, she thanked us. Our hands, too, are helpless, but our aching heart is called upon to expand, meeting so much pain.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group 

Settlers use Drones to Persecute Massafer Yatta Residents

Today’s report is from Tuba and Tha’ala, in the north-eastern part of Massafer Yatta.

To our friends all,

Evil has always had such varied and creative ways. The modern era invents even newer ones.

D., her elderly mother and 16-year-old brother live in Tuba, in a cave a bit distant from the village center. They have known harassment by settlers and soldiers for a long time, long before October 7^th, 2023 – surprise nightly searches, takeover of family water holes, demolitions, theft, intimidations, threats, etc. Since the war broke out these harassments have been perpetrated on a daily basis. (As our prior reports will remind you)

The elderly mother moved to stay with one of her sons in Yatta, for some days of fresh air, while D. and her younger brother decided to take the flock to nearby Safai village in the evening, about half an hour walk from their own cave, and return home to Tuba in the morning with the flock. In Safai they sleep outdoors, near an old cave that has not been renovated and is not fit to live in. D. had nothing left after the last settler raids on their Tuba cave, except for a few blankets and a pot or two which we helped her move to Safai about a week ago.

On Wednesday evening (8.11), at 10:15 p.m. D. notified me on WhatsApp in real time that soldiers are searching Safai. I asked whether they were in the entire village and she answered, “No, just us”. This surprised even me. The next day, Thursday (9.11), we visited them in Tuba. We learned that on the day before, as D. and her brother left for Safai with the flock, the settlers followed them with a drone that hovers above the whole time, and when it identified the place where D. and her brother were sleeping, they notified the army and soldiers came to conduct a search. This was so miserable and despicable that I could hardly find the words. What is to be searched there, with people who have nothing sleeping outdoors with the two thin blankets and the breath of 31 sheep to keep them warm?

Indeed, such varied and creative ways evil always had. The modern era further “enriches” these ways. 

We too have already been reported by the drone, and had been stopped twice by armed settlers wearing army uniforms. On Thursday we managed to evade the drone and reach Tuba and Tha’ala. When I called Y. last night to coordinate our visit, he asked me to call in the morning to find out whether he’d be home. I called at 8:30 a.m. and he said, “Come, you’ll be welcome”. We reached him at 2:30 p.m. He is a nice man who always manages to see the full half of the cup in spite of the daily harassments. But yesterday I saw him so sad, even desperate. This is what he said:

“At 7:30 a.m.” (no mention when we spoke an hour later…) “two very young settlers came, perhaps 15 years old, took my flock – 140 sheep – standing about 70 meters from my home, and began to take it towards the settlement. I called activist G. immediately, asking him to call the army. A jeep with four soldiers came rather fast and when the boys saw the soldiers, they ran away. The soldiers did not stop them, but returned the flocks that had already been several hundred meters away from the house. The soldiers said to me: ‘This is a military zone; the flock must not be here.’ I said nothing. But in my heart I said that this is no military zone. It’s the home where I was born.”

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group

Massafer Yatta Visit – November 8

On Wednesday we visited Mufaqara and Rakeez, in the north-central part of Massafer Yatta, not too far from the region’s main highway. For a map of the entire Massafer Yatta, see here.

We were joined by Ilana Hammerman, editor, translator and longtime activist who publishes opinion pieces in Haaretz newspaper [and elsewhere], as well as Irena, an old acquaintance of Yair who wished to go “on the ground”. Irena has worked for many years as a nurse in the respiratory intensive care unit, and we wanted the benefit of her experience for the first mission of our visit. Because even in times of war, people are born and die regardless of bad news.

D., wife of M., the son of F. from Mufaqara, gave birth to twin girls two and a half months ago. One of the twins is healthy and robust, we saw her on our previous visits. Her sister was born with a severe problem in her respiratory tract that necessitated a tracheotomy and mechanical respiration. The baby, named Tulin, remained in Hebron’s children hospital.

We knew the medical challenge of respiration closely, from the two years during which we accompanied and supported Harun, shot in his neck by an Israeli soldier and paralyzed in most of his body. Harun was attached to a respiration machine for months, and even after learning to breathe independently, he remained with an opening in his trachea in order to dispose of phlegm. Our small group has supported and is still supporting his family, and raised donations to finance his stay at an Israeli rehabilitation hospital. Harun passed away last February from complications related to pressure sores.

Back to the present day: reaching Hebron from Mufaqara is not easy even in normal times (nothing is “normal” under occupation, but everything is relative). Since war has broken out now, this has become nearly impossible. Tulin’s parents have managed to visit her only a handful of times. Even if the baby does get adequate medical care at the hospital, having no caregiver by her bedside is not good for her development.

In our visit to Tulin’s family about a week ago, we were told that the hospital wishes to release her, on the condition that a suction device be available at home, and that the mother undergo several days of training at the hospital. The list of necessary equipment has been mailed to us, and knowing Irena I consulted with her. She made contact with the organization Physicians for Human Rights (Israel), and came back with many questions for which I had no answers. I suggested she join our visit there in order to see the conditions at home and speak with the family.

Therefore, the F. home was our first stop, and gladly it seemed that we could bring the baby home and enable her to be with her family until her surgery. Many questions remained open, and we shall try to answer them with the help of H., our Palestinian partner in Hebron who knows the hospital directors and will help making direct contact with the treating physician. Then we shall have to get the necessary equipment – please expect a request for donations!

From there we continued to the neighboring house and met N. and his son, his young wife and two infant daughters. From them we heard about settler harassment. About a week ago, settlers from Avigail (or soldiers, who knows?) came and cut down olive trees, and also slashed the tires of his vehicle – a legal car with a Palestinian license plate. The family did have another vehicle, an old unregistered “mashtouba” (clunker or beater). On Tuesday evening (November 7) the settlers were back. The family closed itself in fear at home, and heard the settlers starting the mashtouba and forcefully changing gears without the clutch, until they broke the gear and ruined the engine.   

Leaving the house we met M., the grandfather of the little boy whose head the settlers tried to smash with a rock at the pogrom two years ago, which took place exactly on Simhat Torah. That was the first time in which a large group of settlers invaded the village, attacked villagers, broke into homes and vandalized equipment and vehicles. The 2021 pogrom aroused much interest at the time, and even the region’s Israeli military general came to visit and apologize. Nowadays, such pogroms are routine.

M., an impressive man and fluent Hebrew speaker, showed us the approach road to the village, that like other villages in the area has been blocked with concrete slabs by the military as soon as war broke out. Exiting the village for food or a doctor’s appointment is carried out on winding, potholed dirt tracks, and even there soldiers and settlers make travel difficult.

The neighboring village of Rakeez is situated on the opposite hill, where Harun’s family lived until recently. M. showed us two houses of neighbors deserted in recent years due to the problems in this area. In recent days, settlers exploited the families’ absence to vandalize their water tanks, and broke windows and solar panels.

Two other families from the village left more recently for fear of the settlers and because of livelihood difficulties, as their grazing grounds have been declared out of bounds. When war broke out, Harun’s family too left for its Yatta home. Of the ten families who lived here in the past, only two are left now. Our next visit was with one of them.

S. lives not far from the house of Harun’s family, and tends a nice grove of olive trees and vines. He is originally from Yatta, and purchased the land about 15 years ago. He is a talented individual, and with his own two hands built the houses and caves that serve his large family, numbering two wives and ten children, from the age of 15 to the age of 2. S. is religious, his white beard dyed with henna, and his wives are veiled except for their eyes, but are very communicative and glad to talk and tell us about their lives and troubles.

The family also has an olive grove in Yatta, and two weeks ago all of them went there to harvest the olives. This year’s crop is meager, because the summer was very hot. While they were harvesting, S. received a message from his neighbor: “Seven settlers have invaded your home.” They pulled out the metal gate, broke windows and bars, cut vines and electric cables. They cut the water pipe and caused the loss of 30 cubic meters of water that were in them. The settlers saw the neighbor watching them and threatened him with murder if he dared photograph them. The neighbor left his home out of sheer terror, and has not returned. The whole village now has only two families, S.’s and his neighbor A.’s. 

On Tuesday (November 7) noon, the settlers came back. They were five. The women and children had just gotten back on foot from the mobile clinic at the neighboring village of a-Tuwani. Two of the settlers stopped them on the way threatening them with their rifles, and prevented them from returning home.  

At the same time, all the males were forced into one room, their IDs were taken away and they were photographed by phone camera. After S. demanded that they release the women, the women too were forced into the small room where 13 people were then crowded.

The settlers again cut electric cables and water pipes, broke solar panels, punctured the water tank and spilled the precious water on the ground. Worst of all: they stole the jackhammer that is so useful in the rocky south Mt. Hebron area.  S. has already repaired all the rest, or will repair it. But the jackhammer… He showed us a photo, it is an old model that is no longer produced but is better than all the new ones. Where will he find such a tool now?

We sat for a long while at S.’s well-tended home, with his veiled wife who – she says – knew us from our frequent visits with Harun’s family. Sadly, we cannot say we remember her. That veil… The children were friendly and polite, and so were some young women who came to visit, connected with the family. One of them studies psychology at a Yatta college. Good people, who like all Masafer Yatta inhabitants cannot understand why they have to suffer because of the war in Gaza, at the other end of the country.

Back home in the evening, we received a sobering message: a dear friend from another village, whom we visit often, asked that we do not come in the near future. He said that after every one of our visits the settlers arrive and hold a violent pogrom disguised as a “search”, they “question” and humiliate the villagers, including women and children. The village is being constantly observed by settlers and our visits are visible. The settlers (or the soldiers, it’s all the same now) have threatened them several times that the presence of Israeli allies or international activists will be costly, and they are indeed making it so. The villagers have not slept for several nights now, the children and women suffer from stress and anxiety, and the place is nearly exploding. “I love you”, he said, “but don’t come here”. 

I want to cry.

Yair, on behalf of the Villages Group (translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron)

Nov. 3: Visiting Families under Attack in 3 Massafer Yatta Villages

Webmaster note: I received this translation a week after the visit, and meanwhile there have been more recent posts here – but the information is very important so I are posting it now “out of order”. Also, I am beginning to use the local Palestinian name for the region: Massafer Yatta rather than “South Hebron Hills” or “South Mt. Hebron” which are more recent Israeli terms.

To our dear friends,

I no longer manage to be precise about the dates, since the Israeli army and the settlers in “south Mt. Hebron” (Massafer Yatta) are now attacking so many times, and the writing going on in my head and passing onto the computer is constant.

I thought that perhaps these reports are beginning to weigh heavy on their readers, as is always the case in wars that last (who ever remembers that the war in Ukraine is ongoing?). So, this is beginning to happen, perhaps, in the Middle East wars. However, the official networks in the world and the social media are still relaying and replaying to the world the horrific massacres that occurred on October 7^th in the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, their horrible ramifications that are still being sorted out, and the war of vengeance that is now massacring innocent civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile the public hears very little about the West Bank front, and in particular Area C – in the Palestinian Jordan Valley and Massafer Yatta. Here and there, one sees an article in Israel’s relatively liberal newspaper (Ha’aretz Daily) that is still read by the few with some remaining enlightenment, and on some social media that do not reach the wider public. That is why our own reports are perhaps still important.

Sorry for this long foreword.

Last night we first visited Mohammad and his family from Umm Barid. We shouldn’t have come to their home, for they were not there. The were guests at the home of generous neighbors in the nearby village of Sha’ab al-Butum. Last week the settlers beat up, damaged and destroyed (see our report of the visit at Umm Barid from October 26^th). On Thursday November 2^nd they attacked yet again.

This is what L., M.’s wife recalls:

“Ever since the previous attack. We sleep nights in the home of our neighbors, and in the mornings we go home and fix and repair what has been destroyed there. So as every morning, yesterday too we came home. Then from afar we saw the settlers coming close. We went to our neighbors’ home right away, for we knew that if we stayed they would beat us up and humiliate us. We watched them from a distance and saw that they were six settlers. Three entered the house, and three went to our vehicle and water tank which they had damaged the previous time. At 4.30 p.m. we went home to see what happened, and saw that again they destroyed everything we had begun to fix.”

L. told this, with her mischievous smile. I asked her how she manages to smile, or even laugh, and she said that if she doesn’t laugh, she’ll cry and will not be able to function.

Our second visit that day was at Tha’ala, seeing Y.. This is what he told us:

“The son of the owner of the settler ranch nearby and their shepherd, both about 25-years-old, came yesterday, Thursday (November 2^nd) at 10:30 p.m. on an ATV.  They were armed, and fired and fired among the houses from their ATV. Their car stood on the other side of the village and backed them up. Then they walked around and continued to shoot. All this took about an hour, and then they left. I called the police and the army in real time, but they did not come.”

Y. tells this in his precise, matter-of-fact manner.

We then visited Umm al-Khair. That Thursday, November 2^nd, at 10:30 p.m. about 30 soldiers entered through the back gate of Carmel settlement that is only a few meters from the residences of Umm al-Khair villagers. The male and female soldiers were there with a sniffer dog, and conducted a search. If this was really a search, it could be conducted respectfully. If we’re talking about humiliation, there was plenty of it there – they trashed, ruined, broke, intimidated and threatened with guns anyone who dared maintain some dignity.

This is what H. tells us:

“At 10:30 p.m. dozens of soldiers came. Some went to the home of S. and some to the house of the elderly woman who had performed the Hajj, and to another home, and to the community center. I was there. They shackled me, blindfolded me and took my phone. I asked the soldier: “Why do you do this to us? We’re not making any trouble.” “So why did you do this on October 7^th”? replied the soldier. I said: “It wasn’t us, and you know it. We’ve been next to the Carmel settlement since they’ve been here, 40 years already, and there was nothing problematic.” The soldier said: “You are not allowed to speak”, and raised his weapon towards me.”

“I was then taken to S.’s home, and only after an hour and a half they came and took off my blindfold, unshackled my hands and gave me back my phone. In S.’s house they took everyone out who was there – women and children of all ages – and conducted a search in the house. They trashed and smashed everything. They also searched the greenhouses and sheep pen. They took the elderly lady out of bed and led her to the Diwan, and broke and destroyed everything they could in her home. They entered my own home too with a dog, but only to the central room. They did not enter the children’s room where my wife and daughters were sleeping, for they had a phone call, just then after which they hurried out and left.”

From my talk with H. I went on to meet Sh., who told me the following:

“Our home was searched the same way. When my husband told them not to enter with the dog because there is a baby in the house, the soldiers beat him and came in with the dog. They threw everything they could on the floor. They searched the baby’s diapers, threw all the food in the kitchen to the floor and smashed the cupboards. I managed to take my baby and my infant out to another room. When the soldiers came there, I asked again not to enter with the dog because if the children wake up they’ll be very frightened. A soldier pointed his gun at me and said that if I don’t shut up he’ll shoot. Then he laughed.” 

Sh. told other things that even the computer screen does not want mentioned. I promised her to return and visit on Sunday in order to calm them down a bit after this trauma.

I got home when evening was already upon us, but before I even managed to breathe a bit after the day’s stories, I already saw messages appearing on my phone about more attacks. Again in Tha’ala, in Umm al-Khair, in Tuba, in a-Tuwani…

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group (translation: Tal Haran with modifications by Assaf Oron)

Massafer Yatta 7.11: A Visit with a Journalist and a Photographer

From our correspondence with friends abroad these past weeks, we know that many of you have made efforts to direct the attention of the media in their countries to the Israeli attempts to perpetrate a ‘quiet transfer’ (ethnic cleansing) in Areas C of the West Bank. Such efforts have accelerated and succeeded considerably since October 7^th. We dedicated our visit on Tuesday, November 7^th, to the direct, active participation in our friends’ efforts. That day we took Dutch journalist Arjen van der Ziel and Israeli photographer Amnon Gutman to three sites that have suffered harsh attacks by settlers and the Israeli army in the past several weeks – A.’s family in the Abu Qbeta compound, the residential and farm area of M.’s family at Umm Barid, and the home of M. at a-Tuwani.

Arjen was especially impressed with the fortitude and courage of M. and his family show at Umm Barid. Settlers who established an outpost between Umm Barid and Avigail after the war broke out, have repeatedly invaded M.’s family compound. They completely destroyed its fields and greenhouses, caused extensive damage inside the house, cruelly beat M. and his sons, threatened them, and ordered them at gunpoint to leave immediately. Consequently M. and his family start sleeping at another house in the neighboring village, but in the daytime they continue to stay at their home in Umm Barid and see guests and friends there, just as they hosted us on Tuesday. All this happens in full view of the settlers who do not cease to observe them for even a moment, and get ready for their next attack.

The unusual show of fortitude and dedication to non-violent resistance shown by M. and his family members has moved and surprised Arjen to such an extent, that he found the need to be frank towards M. and to emphasize that, to his estimation, the publication of the news story about M’s family and its suffering in his Dutch paper (Trouw) will not have any effect on cruel and frightening reality with which they are forced to contend.

In his noble and quiet way, M. thanked Arjen, just as he and his family members thank us. It’s not really gratitude in fact, but the sense of closeness of people whose encounter is a direct and simple  manifestation of humanity. This is a feeling that supersedes one’s digging into one’s tribal-national identity. In other words, it is the opposite feeling of the mass psychosis now overtaking the larger Israeli public who – struck by the Holocaust trauma – has been entrenched in it more than ever since the October 7^th events. We have experienced this simple and direct encounter for a very long time. Now this kind of encounter is somewhat of a relief for us inside the toxic smoke screen of fear, horror and hatred that is overtaking our region.

Ehud, on behalf of the Villages Group (translation: Tal Haran)