Jan. 21-27: Umm Barid Family attempts to return Home, and Settlers Poison their Water Source

This week’s visits were to friends in north-central Massafer Yatta. A larger 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,

Another week has gone by since our last report. Seasonal rains are falling almost on time, the wheat is growing again, and the list of the killed and wounded, the suffering people and the refugees has been growing longer and longer as though it too belongs to nature’s laws… Darkness is thicker now, and it’s hard to remember where light comes from into this world.

Emerging out of this darkness, we keep visiting our friends in Massafer Yatta. There’s not enough room on the page to write in detail the events that keep piling up even in a single hour, let alone a week. “The situation” boils down to thousands and thousands of events ,with names and addresses of real people who pay the price for others’ hatred and aggression. The lawless haters have names and addresses as well, but in these parts the “rule of law”, too, belongs to them, so they walk around caged in their ignorance and free to perpetrate anything their hateful heart desires.

The modest home of M. and his family from Umm Barid has already been demolished four times by settlers since the war started (See also our most recent report on this family and their home). This week the family completed renovating their home, the greenhouse, and the fruit tree grove for the fifth time. They are not allowed to tend their fields in the valley because of settlers’ rule. They plowed and sowed the field next to their home, and the wheat is growing again, and the settlers bring their flocks there to graze and destroy the wheat again. And still, this week the family returned home. During the first few nights two Israeli volunteers joined them, and the first three nights passed peacefully. We visited them later in the week. I brought them more mandalas to color, and taught them “Taki” (one of those table games… a variation on the American game of Uno). They say it helps them to relax a bit after their working hours in the field and at home.

During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, on January 25th, in fact exactly on Tu BiShvat, the Jewish New Year of Trees, settlers from the nearby outpost came and poured diesel and engine oil into the cistern above M.’s house, and ruined the water pump engine.

We were there the next day. Outside the wind blew wild and it was very cold. We sat with them around the ‘Soba’ (fireplace), L. made food, her daughters-in-law helped, one son who had kept night-watch duty was sleeping, and M. and the rest of his sons sat with us. There was this kind of silence filled with mutual attentiveness, and I – still trying to control my anger – asked M. again: “Where do you get your powers from, where do you hide your rage?” M. hears me out, and in the most natural of ways, answers: “Tomorrow we shall take out the dirty water from the well, clean it, and the next days’ rain will fill as much as it will. God willing.” My mind is emptied of the remains of my rage. There is no hatred in this man, no thoughts of revenge. I also tell myself that he is the source of light cutting through the darkness that closes in on the world, and they are already distributing the “Taki” cards among us.

From Umm Barid we proceeded to visit the family of the late Harun. As written in one of our recent reports, a few weeks ago they returned to their home in Rakeez, having been displaced for two months for fear of the Avigail and Havat Ma’on settlers.

Benevolent coincidence had us meet our friends Giora and Har’el there. About a decade ago, Giora – born and raised in our kibbutz, Shoval – asked us how he could help our friends in Massafer Yatta. We raised the problem of firewood for the fireplace that the area’s inhabitants need for warmth and cooking, especially in the winter months. [this region has high elevation and strong winds, combining for rather chilly winters.] Although Giora has been living for years in Kibbutz Samar in the ‘Arava Valley (near Eilat), he has met the challenge. He recruited Har’el, another Samar member, and the two have been on the five-hour road from Samar to Massafer Yatta and back quite a few times every year, bringing firewood with them for several of the poorest families in the area. In recent months, they have done so in collaboration with our friends No’am and Gali who live on a farm in the Northern Negev.

After they finished unloading the firewood, Giora and Har’el together with No’am entered the family cave at Rakeez and shared the tea we were served. In his own manner, Giora tried to encourage the father of this long-suffering family, sharing with him his forecast that this suffering will come to an end in the not-so-distant future, because the nationalist adventures of Jews in this country always end rather soon in historical terms.

After some minutes, having finished their tea, Giora and Har’el took their leave from the family and from us and went on their long way to their own kibbutz in the desert. Next week they intend to come back, carrying another load of firewood for other families.

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

Jan. 13-17: Settlers Assault 74-year-old Maghayir al-‘Abeed Widow, Rob her of her Lambs

On Monday, Villages Group activists visited  eastern Massafer Yatta. A larger 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 all our friends,

We sit – Ophir, Yo’av, and me – with 74-year-old N. and her 36-year-old daughter G., by their beautiful hillside cave and modest dwelling in Maghayir al-‘Abeed. I spotted colorful balloons hanging from a pole, and wondered why. “It was beautiful, like today, so we made a celebration for the beautiful day”, answers G. “And how has it been with the settlers?” I ask. “The last few days were quiet, hamdulillah“, answers G.

N. said she is afraid all the time. G., too, says they live in fear all day, every day. We sat there for a long hour, coddled by the winter sun. It seemed that fear, too, is being mollified. That was on Monday, January 15.

We then visited Taban, also in Massafer Yatta a couple of hills to the south. We saw young A., who is studying to be a veterinarian with our support.

On Wednesday morning, the 17th, we had to visit Maghayir al-‘Abeed again – Ehud, Yohi, Irena and myself – because a few hours earlier, at 2:30 AM, three settlers kicked open the door of the room where N., G., and G’s 14-year-old son S. were sleeping their fearful sleep. The settlers immediately turned to 74-year-old N. who sleeps to the right of the entrance. “WHERE IS YOUR HUSBAND????” they roared. As N. tries to sit up and reply, one of them hits her face with a fist. “There is no husband”, she answers. He roars again: “WHERE IS YOUR HUSBAND????”, she tries to answer again – and again a fist into her face. Thus, three times, with the addition of kicks to her legs. [a defenseless 74-year-old widow]

N. tells them her late husband had passed away, and they scream at her “SHUT UP!!!” Meanwhile, outside there are noises, and G. tells us “I look out the window and see more settlers outside, at least 5 of them, and they are robbing lambs out of our lamb pen. They stole 10 lambs, their moms looked for them and cried in the morning when we took them out to pasture.”

G.’s voice breaks as she finishes her report. “They took my mom to the hospital in an ambulance an hour ago” she adds. I gather up all my forces to be efficient. I send a summary of G.’s report of the crimes to a lawyer who had already heard of the assault, and try to convince 14-year-old S. to help take his mother to the police after visiting the hospital, to file a complaint. S. said that from his family’s experience, Palestinians filing a complaint about settler crimes leads either to nothing – or to the Palestinians themselves being charged… “One still must file a complaint after such a crime”, I said, yet my heart shrank even further knowing he is right.

This makes me think of A., the vet-school student from nearby Taban. After graduation he will be able to cure animals, but [unless we change the political reality] he will not be able to return even one stolen lamb to its owners. How does one cure such evil?

We continued westward, to A.’s home near Susiya. Last month I wrote about how settlers from Israeli Sussya and the surrounding land-grabbing outposts prevent A. from plowing and sowing his lands, how they send their herds to graze in his pastures right next to his home, and how they drive their ATVs every night around the cave where A. lives with his elderly parents.

A. informed us about recent events.

“Last Saturday January 13 2024, in the afternoon, three settlers arrived by car to the road near my home. Two wore uniform and the other one did not. One of the ‘militarized’ settlers had his face masked. At the time, I was working a little above the cave near the home I’m building now so that my wife and kids can return.” [A.’s wife and two of his children were injured in a road accident. They still undergo surgeries, and wait until A. finishes to build the home, because in their former cave they will not be able to function with their new disabilities.]

“The settlers drove fast towards me so I filmed them – if they assault me, at least it will be documented. They got off the vehicle, walked towards me, took my phone and started beating me up. As they did so they also blindfolded and handcuffed me. They beat me with their fists in the ribs, on the forehead, in the face. Then they took me into their vehicle and continued to beat me up there too. They took me to their most recently built outpost, the one closest to my home.”

“Then the military arrived but did nothing. I could not see, but could hear them talking with the soldiers. Then they took me into the military base near Susiya and beat me up again, before leaving me outside the base. They returned my phone after deleting everything. I walked from there to a doctor in Yatta.” [at least an hour’s walk]

A. told us this 4 days after the assault. We noticed the healing wounds on his face. “Does it still hurt?” I asked. “Ya’ni...” he said, “Less, it’s passing.” “You still look pained”, I whispered to him. “That’s from the wound in the heart”, said A. who does not speak much.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Assaf]

Jan. 7-13: Harun’s Family Returns Home to Rakeez; and Other Stories of Resilience

This week’s visits were to friends in north-central Massafer Yatta. A larger 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.

At the beginning of the Gaza war the family members of the late Harun – a young man shot in the neck by a soldier on 1.1.2021 while trying to stop soldiers from robbing his family’s generator and who passed away almost a year ago after two years of suffering – left their home in Rakeez and moved to the regional urban center of Yatta. They did so because, as we and others have been documenting online, relentless settlers with the full backing of Israel’s government, judiciary and military have been exploiting the terrible massacres of October 7th as a pretext to accelerate the multi-pronged ethnic cleansing of West Bank Palestinians, with particular focus on Massafer Yatta. These settlers and in effect the entire state apparatus, have declared war in a place where there is not even an enemy.

This is why Harun’s family escaped to Yatta. But last week they returned to Rakeez! They missed home; Yatta did not grow on them. Their sheep, too, wished to return to their pastures which have now greened after the fall rains. They know that the aggressive behavior of Occupation forces, which during the war have become a military-settler amalgam, has only escalated – and yet they have returned. This way, they can at least start restoring the vegetable patch, the sheep will graze on some grass and provide milk. There will be some food somehow.

But the area’s settlers, who are now the official regional military “emergency squad” with uniforms and military weapons, keep trying to prevent local farmers from tilling their own lands and grazing their own herds, and threaten the farmers’ lives continuously. The Israeli public and the world have turned a blind eye on the injustices committed here for years, and Harun’s family had already paid a dear price. In 2021 as now, there is no war in Massafer Yatta. [only injustice]

We visited the family last week, and for us too it felt like a homecoming. During our visit R. was with the sheep together with his 7-year-old daughter D. While we enjoy the visit (we have not seen the family since the war started), we were told that an armed settler appeared in the family fields. We did not go there in order to avoid providing a pretext (Occupation forces dislike “leftists” as they call us). R. returned with the sheep, who remained hungry that day.

We then visited S. and his family, also in Rakeez. They have not left their home, but during the war they have been suffering from ongoing encroachment on their lands, and intrusion into their living spaces. We have witnessed this before. The few residents of Rakeez who still live at home and till their lands go to bed in fear, wake up in fear every morning, go about their entire daily routine in fear – and when we come and visit, they tell us that things will surely get better soon. Indeed, they are such “a dangerous enemy” [that is, an enemy” according to the dominant media-political-military narrative in Israel, a narrative attempting to justify the injustice by demonizing all Palestinians everywhere].

We continued down the road to A-Tuwani, where we visited Zakaria again. As we wrote last week, Zakaria was shot in October by a settler and spent three months in a hospital in Hebron/Al-Khalil. In another three months Zakaria will undergo his 12th surgery, this time in an effort to restore his digestive system. Until then, he needs more than 100 sterile treatment kits, available only in hospitals. The Al-Khalil hospital discharged him with only three kits. A wonderful doctor from Israel’s Sheba hospital (near Tel-Aviv) has helped us yet again, providing more kits. There are still good people one can find along the way, and they help provide light especially in such dark times.

Over the weekend we visited M.’s family from Umm Barid. That’s the family whose home and entire belongings were destroyed by settlers in October-November in repeated attacks. They still persist and persevere with restoration attempts. They live in a small house donated by a neighbor in nearby Sha’ab al-Butum. They too were mentioned in last week’s report, with the picture of a dove’s first flight we had brought them. Settlers from the nearby outpost are still strolling around the home and greenhouses which are undergoing gradual restoration, and around the fields which have been sowed.

We visited the family in their temporary Sha’ab al-Butum home. No one knows what tomorrow may bring, but they are full of faith. “After all, I have now coordinated with the military [for protection]” says M. with shining eyes. Meanwhile we brought them some coloring books, designed both for children and adults. Even before I start explaining that Mandala coloring is a type of meditation, M.’s eldest son S. who is father to the four young children running around as we spoke, told me: “This is truly like a doctor for the soul, please bring me one as well next time.”

I smiled to myself and recalled the well-known Zen parable, here is one of its many versions:

A man walks along the road and suddenly notices a tiger chasing him. He runs as fast as he can and jumps to hang on a tree trunk by the roadside in order to escape the tiger. As he tries to catch his breath, he notices that the trunk in fact hangs precariously above a deep ravine, at the bottom of which growls another tiger. While he tries to improve his grip on the tree trunk, the man notices two giant rats gnawing away at the base of the trunk.

So: a tiger behind, a tiger below, and two rats gnawing away at his last chances of survival. In that very moment, the man notices a grape vine growing from the side of the cliff near him, bearing fruit to a bunch of grapes. As he maintains his grip in one hand, the man reaches out his other hand and picks the bunch. He eats the grapes and says to himself, “How delicious!!!“

Erella on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Assaf Oron]

Jan. 1-5: Holding out Hope for some Justice

This weekly visit map (with visited locations in ellipses) is based on a map of Massafer Yatta by B’Tselem. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

To all our dear friends,

Another week has passed since our last report. Another week of bombs pounding the already-demolished Gaza, of refugees in their own land both in Israel and in the Gaza Strip, another week of saber-rattling in the north of the country, another week of the collective mindset continuing to deteriorate and escalate, and another week of us visiting the shepherd and farmer communities of Massafer Yatta.

We arrived at the modest home of D., her mother and brother, close to Tuba. While Ophir and I seat ourselves on the rock at the entrance to the cave, waiting for the sweet tea that her mother S. prepares, a few meters above us a settler appears, of those Havat Ma’on guys. Rather young; almost a child. Yesterday a settler came while other activists were visiting, bringing sugar and tea. Settlers come when we are there, and come when we are not there. With an ATV, without it, with their flocks, without them, with or without the army and police; the latter though, do not always appear when D. calls them for help.  We chose not that young settler, and continued to visit other families in Tuba.

This settler and his large flock continue to graze in the farmers’ fields, fields which they have plowed and sowed. Now this settler’s flock eats its fill in fields that are not his. R. says: “What can we do? If we insist that these are our fields, they’ll say it’s not ours. Everything here is [supposedly] theirs. And if we insist, they might shoot us. That has already happened.”

F. says repeatedly, cries out every time we sit in his cave: “What am asking after all? Just to graze my sheep and goats and tend the fields that I and my parents and my ancestors tended before me. I do not threaten anyone and do not hate anyone. But they wish to sit in Havat Ma’on, which is not their land, and to remove us from here. So, they harass us, steal, threaten, attack us, even come into our homes…” We contain this pain every time we visit and have no ability to change anything in this grand scheme. The settlers’ takeover is total, fully backed up and administered by the government, the army, the police, the deceptively-named “Civil Administration”, the judiciary system and the State of Israel  – all are arms of a power-hungry and violent Occupation regime. Here and there, one might find a soldier or policeman whose ears are open, a judge that could perhaps open up their ears and heart.

…

On Wednesday I was determined to get to Wadi Jeh’eish. We hadn’t visited our close friends there for a while, even though it is only a few hundred meters from the main highway – because since the war started, the military and settlers have blocked it from three directions. Nowadays one can only enter the Wadi through the town of Samu’a, and we don’t know the way. We asked M. to come and get us from A.’s home as we parked there, and passed over to his car. The drive took half an hour, some of it on the town roads and some along a dirt path that hardly be called a trail. Every time villagers need food, a doctor, visit family etc. – minimal human needs – they have to use this non-road. The military and settlers have done this to many West Bank villages since the war started.

We visited the elderly H. and T., our soul mates. H. is supposed to undergo surgery in two days but this does not really occupy his mind. What he told me was something he experienced with soldiers. “Ten days ago,” he said, “many soldiers came to search here. I was out with the flock. They took me away from the flock, brutally. I asked them to let me bring the flock into the pen first, but they wouldn’t. They behaved badly, did not treat me like a human being. Their search in our home too was impolite.” H. is a gentle person, modest and wise. He is good-hearted and a gifted farmer. He never complains and always respects others. H. was deeply hurt by his confrontation with the army. Soldiers usually do not enter the Wadi. The settlers are the rulers there. By law, the army is supposed to defend the Occupied civilians but this is not what really happens. H. shared his story with us, and I noticed that he was down, unusual for him. I said, “Dear H., at the end of the day no one can steal your freedom to be who you are. Even Nelson Mandela said this after 27 years in jail.” H. listened carefully, and then whispered mindfully, “You are right.”

…

On Friday, Ehud and I visited A-Tuwani, just as Zakaria returned home. On October 13, 2023, a settler from Havat Ma’on shot Zakaria at close range. The bullet exploded in Zakaria’s belly and critically wounded him. For the first few weeks he fought for his life in the Hebron hospital, and then began a lengthy stabilization process. He was hospitalized for three months, and shortly before we arrived, he returned to his family to continue his rehabilitation at home. While I sat with him, I received a telephone call from M. whose home is at the edge of a-Tuwani, in the direction of Havat Ma’on. He cried out to me: “There are two settlers in uniforms right now next to my home, I tell them to leave because this is my home, and I also tell them that I have an agreement with the Border Police that I can walk around 30 meters from my own home.” The soldier (or settler?) yells at him: “I tell you what you can do, it’s not your say. If you say one more thing, I’ll shoot you.”

three months ago, M. stood next to Zakaria when the latter was shot, so he knows that this is not an empty threat. He asks me to call the Military Central Region Command spokesperson and I do, and we both know that until the official responds – if he does at all – the event would be over. This is what happens nearly every day now. How much inner power one needs to stay cool, I think, and take my leave of Zakaria.

…

We then visited M. and his family at Umm Barid. L. – his wife – and daughters-in-law were already cooking us lunch, while M. and his son continue to renovate their home and fields which the settlers have already ruined 4 times in the past few months. Two days prior to our visit, M. was in court about a complaint he had lodged after the first assault, which ended with M. and his son in the hospital. “The court session was good”, M. answers when I ask him about it. This is perhaps one of ‘the few cases where you find a judge with whose heart in the right place.’ It is extremely rare for a judge to rule in favor of a Palestinian plaintiff. [and even then, rather often the military and/or settlers ignore the ruling with impunity]

The family has been renovating its home as if this were obvious. For me it’s not so obvious how someone whose home was demolished and he was beaten up still keeps a clean heart. M. is not literate, but he is a great teacher to me. I brought the family a photograph of a young dove on its first flight, which my partner took many years ago. On the back I wrote: No one can take our freedom from us.

M. and his family were overjoyed.

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

Week of Dec. 24-30: Resilience in the Face of a Morally Corrupt Military Rule

Most events in this weekly update took place in north-central Massafer Yatta. A larger 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,

The days go by, and writing becomes ever more difficult, directly tied to the growing difficulty of containing reality around us in all levels and directions. It is an ever-growing difficulty to contain human ignorance and its consequences, and to keep choosing to be a true healer (I borrow this expression from Albert Camus, who – in his novel The Plague – divides humans into four groups: murderers, victims, innocent murderers, and true healers). It is so difficult to witness the evil deeds that gradually multiply, while our ability to help continues to diminish.

Tulin and Sulin are twin 4-month-old baby-girls. They live in the Palestinian village of al-Mufaqara and we have known their father since he was a little child. Tulin was born with problems in her respiratory system. Doctors had to open her neck (the professional term is tracheostomy) in order to ease her breathing and remove the accumulating phlegm. She spent two and a half months at a Hebron hospital. Since she came home, we have provided her with the catheters that remove the phlegm. Her family could not obtain them for lack of access (the village is blocked and mobility difficult) as well as economically (1,000 NIS monthly cost). These catheters are life-saving, for without them Tulin would suffocate. We buy them in Israel and bring them to al-Mufaqara.

Last Wednesday, December 27^th, we delivered catheters for Tulin and sat for a while with her parents. Like most Massafer Yatta men, Tulin’s dad cannot get to his workplace in Israel since war broke out. With us sat the grandparents and aunts and uncles as well, young and old. They were glad to share tea with us and to praise their grandchildren.

Suddenly, with the speed of those skilled in such instant shifts from relaxation to emergency response, they all rose at once and ran up the hill to the edge of the range, several meters from their home. While trying to keep up with them and to comprehend this abrupt transition, I saw settler ATVs and mini tractors on the opposite range, their passengers descending on foot to the wadi below us. As we watched, a police car as well as a military vehicle arrived too. The children and the adults were on edge, bracing themselves for every possible scenario. As we stood on the very tip of the range, we could see that in the wadi, all its fields Palestinian-owned, one landowner dared to plow his olive grove. A small grove with ten olive trees. The neighboring settlers could not tolerate this. The owner called the police [and of course the police and military showed up right away]. Tulin’s family breathed freely. This time it was not about their private area.

Before I had time to process this experience, I had a call from Y., in another village. His village was invaded in the morning – as it is daily – by two settlers with an ATV who photographed the villagers and their children up close. Shortly afterwards, five settlers in uniforms arrived in a pickup truck. From the opposite direction came five ‘normal’ soldiers on foot. It remained unclear who had summoned whom. It was only obvious that the former were rude and violent, while the ‘normal’ soldiers were a bit gentler though they did not prevent a thing. Two young villagers were beaten up, shackled, blindfolded and taken by the pickup truck to an unknown destination. One of the villagers was taken off the vehicle and left somewhere, and the other was brought in the evening to the police station, all bruised, on (completely made-up) charges that he had hit a soldier. However, no matter how ridiculous the charges, as soon as settlers lodge a complaint, it enters official “legal” proceedings [of course the entire thing is the very opposite of proper law and order], and we cannot do a thing.  Lawyers, too, cannot help much in such cases. The settlers know that this is yet another form of harassment and torture, one of their favorite tracks for “silent” ethnic cleansing.

With these two experiences we arrived in Umm Barid. In previous reports I wrote about the family who lives there – two parents, four sons ages 20-30, four daughters-in-law, two grandchildren and a 13-year-old daughter. They all lived in a compound they had built on their own land, and developed a marvelous little farm. All this was cruelly destroyed in October-November by settlers who have squatted nearby, and who think that the land belongs to them.

Early last week the family returned home to rebuild it. The father says he has reached an agreement with the deceptively-named “Civil Administration” and the police, that they will guarantee his safety. Such a story we have never encountered before [considering the context – as exemplified by the two other episodes in this report – whereby the military (which runs the deceptively-named “Civil Administration”) and the police always do the settlers’ bidding, rarely stop settlers from committing crimes against locals, and are increasingly indistinguishable from the settlers].

Time will tell. Anyway, the determination, perseverance, trust and heart-warming smile of the father whom we met plowing his field with his donkey, this unbearable lightness of being, could only be practiced by those who know that they belong to the land.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group

Dec. 25: Special Event in Tel Aviv, Launching Erella’s Book Based on Villages Group Activities

Webmaster note: having accompanied the Villages Group for many years from afar, it is my understanding that its philosophy and its manner of engaging Palestinian communities, have been Erella’s brainchild. I am grateful that she has now documented some of the past two decades’ experience and insights in a more durable way. The book, called in Hebrew ניצב דומם (“Standing Voiceless” or “Standing Silent”), may be translated to English or Arabic soon. The launch event took place at Reading Bookstore, Tel Aviv, on December 25.

Erella at the event

Ehud’s Words at the Book Launch of Erella’s Standing Voiceless

December 25, 2023

Erella was born in Haifa under the British Mandate, a mixed city where Jews and Arabs lived next to each other. Joining her mother who served as a public nurse, to home visits with families in the Arab neighborhoods, was a formative experience in her life. This is where her commitment to peace blossomed, not as a heart-felt wish, plan or solution, but as a way of life that requires fulfilment at all times, under any circumstances.

Ehud speaking at the event

As a part of her commitment to peace as a way of life, Erella initiated and participated in numerous projects and actions. Among all of these, her activity in the Villages Group has eventually proved itself the most long-lived. This is no coincidence. Among all of Erella’s many varied talents and skills, her ability to create an intimate-personal contact is the greatest. This rare ability of hers is best expressed by Erella under the aegis of the Villages Group.

Each of our members, over time, brings his/her own special contribution and personality. Still, Erella’s contribution to our group is the lengthiest, deepest and most intense. The secret of the Villages Group’s longevity lies in the basic approach that Erella has taught us – and still does: The heart of our activity is the construction and preservation of personal contact, long and deep relations with Palestinian families and individuals, and our ongoing encounter with them – unconditional, independent of circumstance and expectation, beyond hope and despair.

Ilana Hammerman, well-known literary translator and fearless voice against the Occupation, who has participated in Villages Group activities and led similar activities elsewhere in the Occupied Territories.

We are happy with this launch of Erella’s book. It is entirely hers, looking on and reporting the goings-on from her very special point of view, and written in her own unique style. Nonetheless, it is also ours, members of the Villages Group. We are present and mentioned in it. Without our active involvement in the events it covers, most of the content of this book could not have taken place. Among other things, this book also attests to our efforts to walk with Erella and try to fulfill peace as a way of life.

Ehud, on behalf of the Villages Group

Renowned human-rights lawyer and personal friend of Villages Group, Michael Sfard

Ram Cohen, educator who as high school principal brought information and discussion of the Occupation and human rights into the classroom, a rare step in present-day Israel

Dec. 24: Between Maghayir al-‘Abeed and New Zealand

Maghayir al-‘Abeed is in east-central Massafer Yatta. A larger 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.

Maghayir al-‘Abeed  might be the most beautiful locality in Massafer Yatta. Once, a long time ago, it used to be a sizable community in Massafer Yatta terms: there were 7-8 families living here. Under the pressure of Israel’s Occupation regime, the families left one by one, with only one or two families remaining there now (depending how you count them) – Sh. And his wife, sons and daughters living in the bottom cave, and Sh.’s mother living in the upper cave with her unmarried daughter, N.

Because of the site’s isolation and its few inhabitants, Maghayir al-‘Abeed  has become an easy target for settlers from Havat Ma’on and its offshoots. In recent months, even prior to the present war and all the more after it broke out, they have been making considerable efforts to force Sh.’s family to leave. Among other things, the settlers have taken over much of the family’s land and its water holes, devastated its olive grove, killed several sheep, entered the caves to conduct ‘searches’, beaten up Sh. And his sons, and terrorized the family with their threats and wild night rides near the caves. In short, their usual repertoire, concentrating all of it on this one small family, determinedly holding on to its land.

The mentioned blows have been augmented by another – for about a month and a half a disease has afflicted Sh.’s flock, causing the death of the older sheep, those who had already given at least one birth. We – helpless in our attempts to prevent settler terrorism – have been trying to help Sh. cope with the disease. We connected Sh. with an Israeli veterinarian who is our friend and who has visited the south Mt. Hebron communities with us in the past. After speaking on the phone with Sh. and seeing several photos, our vet friend managed to diagnose the disease. Unfortunately, it is a harsh one with no current remedy. The only way to deal with it is to take blood samples from the males of the flock. These samples are to be sent to a laboratory, in order to conduct genetic diagnosis showing which of the males is more resistant to the disease. These males would lead the development of resistance in the flock through their offspring.

Equipped with test tubes provided by the Israeli vet, we arrived there on Sunday, December 24^th. Sh. made sure a Palestinian vet from Yatta would be there to help with the tests. Thus, not much longer after our arrival, the Palestinian vet arrived with two helpers. Sh.’s son led all three to the family’s sheep pen. They caught the males one by one and took samples of their blood. At the same time, they marked the males with numbers on their fleece and on one horn, so that after the lab test, they could identify which male carries that hoped-for genetic material resistant to the disease.

In two days, the samples will be sent by the firm for which the Israeli vet works, to one of the state-of-the-art labs in New Zealand, world capital of sheep husbandry.

In the noise and destruction of this terrible war, we managed to create a Palestinian-Israeli-international ad hoc cooperation, aiming to rescue the rest of Sh.’s flock from the virus that has afflicted it, beyond settler harassment. It is a small but precious cooperation that connects two ends of the sheep world – beautiful and dry Maghayir al-‘Abeed and lush, green New Zealand.

Ehud, on behalf of the Villages Group

Dec. 11-15: Local Organizer Gets Tuba Kids to School around Settler Blockade, and Other Updates

Tuba is in east-central Massafer Yatta. A-Tuwani and its school are to its northwest, near the main road; and Khalet a-Dabe’ to its southwest, near the bottom of this map inset. A larger 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,

I did not write this week. Ya’ir wrote about Khalat A-Dab a’, and that is already enough for a whole month… But naturally that is not how this works. Things keep happening on the ground the whole time. Past continues into present that continues into what in all probability appears to be tomorrow.  

• On Monday, December 11, 2023, A. went forth from Emneizal (in the far southwest of Massafer Yatta) to plow his own land with his donkey and plow. Uniformed, armed settlers forced him out of his field, and with blows and threats forced him to walk by his donkey to the checkpoint nearest the village (about 2.5 kilometers). There they robbed him of his plow ,and after some hours left him.
• That day, in the same village, S.’s tractor was taken.
• Two days later, settlers punctured the two water tanks belonging to I. of Wadi Jeh’eish (1km north of Emneizal).
• That very same day, settlers from around Avigail finally finished off the remains of M.’s car in Umm Barid, which they had already vandalized about a month ago, when they destroyed his home and field three times over. Today’s destruction was done while we were visiting the family at its temporary residence in the neighboring village of Sha’ab Al Butum.
• On Tuesday we visited Tuba, sitting in the beautiful cave of U. and his family. Even long before the current war, Tuba farmers suffered harassment from their neighbors of Havat Ma’on. Now during the war, this harassment has crossed all red lines. “Yesterday, as I began to plow my field next to my home”, U. says, “colonists came and told me I couldn’t plow my field now because there’s a war going on.” With his touching innocence, he tells us: “I didn’t understand what one thing had to do with the other, but there was no one to talk to. They were armed and threatening, and they entered my house as if it were theirs. They also humiliate us. They said to my nephew: ‘You will plow and sow, and our sheep will graze in your field.’ That’s what they said, and that’s what they do. They bring their flocks to our fields and we have nothing left for our own flocks.” He speaks with the deep pain of one who is desperate, but has no intention of giving up his life there. This is such a destructive combination, I think, and I have no solace to offer. I can only contain the pain, frustration and desperation, and promise to distribute this far and wide, and continue coming to visit.

We then visited another family in this small village. A large family, most of whose children and grandchildren go to school. There we heard a more hopeful update for a change:

Tuba children attend school at a-Tuwani, a larger village about a 15-minute walk away. Ever since Havat Ma’on settled between Tuba and a-Tuwani in 1997, the children could no longer take the shorter route because of settler violence, and must take a roundabout route, two hours there and two hours back. In 2004, after great efforts by human rights and peace organizations active on the ground, government echelons decided that the children would be accompanied by an army jeep with soldiers. For 19 years, Tuba children – some of them already parents of the present children – had taken the shorter route accompanied by the Israeli army.

As soon as war broke out, this has stopped, but so have studies at the school. Ten days ago school finally resumed, but the soldiers have yet to return. The children from A-Tuwani go to school, but the children from Tuba and neighboring Mughayir al-Abeed cannot get there. All routes are dangerous. They are all threatened by the vandals, who now dress themselves up in uniform as if they were soldiers. The educational gap keeps growing. For two months now the children have studied online, while exposed to the frequent violent settler attacks on their villages. Now, when they can finally resume their frontal studies at school – a basic right to which any child is entitled – the children of Tuba and Maghayir al-Abid are denied it.

As soon as we parked the car, I already saw 14-year-old S. running to me with her priceless smile. She was followed by the rest of the family’s children, all happy as can be. “We were in school today!”, S. answers the question I didn’t even have time to ask. The light in her eyes drove away at once all the suffering, the humiliation, beatings and frustrations, reducing the desperation and empowering even the parents and grandparents who gathered there.

“How did you get there?” I asked, after we hugged excitedly. “A. took us in a car” the chorus answered. A. from Tuba finished this school seven years ago, graduated University and came back to the village to become a peace activist. He wouldn’t accept Tuba children not studying. So, he saw to it that they got to school. He crowded them into his car which has four seats, and drove them from Tuba to the main road. Three kilometers of a potholed track which are difficult even under normal circumstances. Whoever never saw this track winding from the village to the road, could hardly grasp such difficulty.

From the asphalt road it is still another nine kilometers to a-Tuwani. A. organized the pickup from there onwards, in two other human rights activists’ cars, to bring them to school. It’s an expensive solution (fuel and other car costs) and its coordination is complicated and never a sure thing. It all depends on what happens on the ground on a given day, to say nothing of too many children in a car meant for four (plus the driver) on the harsh route from Tuba to the main road. A. has been trying to make contact with the DCO (official coordination office between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority) in order to bring back the army’s accompaniment. In the meantime, no results. So many obstacles on the way to education…

Even these obstacles are softened by the children’s joy. I was privileged to witness it.

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

Dec. 8 Khalet a-Dabe’ Pogrom: Resident Stories vs. Israeli Military Disinformation

Khalet a-Dabe’ is near the center of Massafer Yatta. It is visible (with a different English transliteration) at the bottom of this map. A larger 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.

Last Friday’s pogrom (December 8^th) at Khalet A-Dabe’ has had many repercussions. Its story had hundreds of shares, and even made it to the mainstream Israeli media.

As anticipated, the Israeli army’s reaction to the reports was far from the truth: “During operational action to search for combat material, incitement flags were located, including Hamas flags, as well as military equipment, and ammunition in a child’s bag.”

The local Israeli settlers leapt on the report and its military denial, as “proof” that this was no pogrom but “an amazing anarchist lie that ynet [mainstream Israeli news website] bought into willingly”. This week we went to visit our friend J. at Khalet A-Dabe’, and hear exactly what happened.

As in the rest of the Massafer Yatta villages, the inhabitants of Khalet A-Dabe’ had lived in caves until they began building houses in order to improve their quality of life. J., too, built a house but it was demolished by the military’s deceptively-named “Civil Administration”. J. built it again, the authorities demolished it again, and thus – five times (!). After the last demolition J. decided to invest in renovating the cave, and received his guests in a tent erected over the rubble.

Since war broke out the settlers’ harassment has increased, so J. took to sleeping in the tent while his wife and five children slept in the cave. Thus, too, last Friday. This is what he told us about December 8:

“It was very early, there was hardly any light outside yet. Several soldiers entered the tent, said good morning and how are you, and that they came to search for weapons. I said, ‘Tfadalou, just don’t scare the kids.’ They really behaved well, did their search and left – but then the settlers arrived.  “

“The settlers came. Since the start of the war, they have taken to dress up with army uniforms, and since they carry army-issued weapons they look like soldiers. But we can tell them apart from the regular soldiers by two things: their boots and their behavior. The settlers were masked but I recognized one of them, the red-head from Havat Ma’on – a violent guy who hates Arabs and is notorious throughout the region. With them it all began differently, with crude cussing: ‘Son of a whore [repeated in both Hebrew and Arabic], you’re Hamas’, and they stick their weapons in our faces. The settlers searched again, turned everything upside down, smashed out floodlights, dismantled part the fence.”

“One door was locked, and we asked that they wait until we bring the key. But they began to saw it open with their circular saw. In this manner, they went from house to house and trashed everything. In the main part of the village, they forced all the residents into one house.” (J.’s and his brother’s houses are a bit distant from the rest of the village, so they were ‘handled’ separately)

“They took my cousin S. to the latrine and beat him up there. After a while, a settler arrived with a school bag that contained old ammunition. ‘Is this yours?’ S. said he had never seen the bag nor the ammunition before. They went on beating him so he would admit it was his, but he wouldn’t confess, because it really wasn’t.“

“Beaten-up S. was then taken by the soldiers, shackled and blindfolded, for a long ride of some hours, ending up in the Kiryat Arba police station. The soldiers’ cruelty continued, including putting out cigarettes on his arms. Finally, he was checked by a doctor, his face was wiped of blood, and he was taken into interrogation. Again, he was asked about the ammunition and the school bag, and again he denied having anything to do with them. He said that a soldier stood next to him the whole time, until the policeman ordered the soldier out. Only then made him sign a commitment to show up for trial, and released him. The time was already around 6 p.m.”

To further interpret the information from J.’s report, it is important to expand on this “ammunition” business. Some old bullets may have been found somewhere around the village: the Israeli army conducts maneuvers in the area and leaves a lot of waste and equipment lying around – crates, ammunition, and quite a few pieces of unexploded ordnance that have already severely injured residents.

Still, it is far more likely that the settlers themselves had brought the bag with them and tried to plant it into someone’s belongings. Proof: were there even a shred of evidence that the ammunition belonged to S. or to anyone else from the village, he would not have been released that day, not even that year. The military “justice” system is extremely harsh on Palestinian residents, and once there is a shred of believable evidence against them, they are likely to be jailed for years right away. S.’s immediate release attests to the fact that even the police realized this was yet another of the settlers’ many deceptive and fraudulent activities – just like their dressing up as soldiers to begin with.  

Let us also clarify the story about the “Hamas incitement flags” that were supposedly found. Muhammad Raba’i, head of a-Tuwani’s village council, tried to get to Khalet A-Dabe’ and provide assistance. At the same time, a Palestinian ambulance was summoned but not permitted to enter. Raba’i went back with the ambulance but an army jeep carrying soldiers stopped them. They had him disembark, they tied a green ribbon to his head which they had with them (the jeep blocked the entrance to the village and didn’t enter it at all during the search, so clearly the ribbon did not come from the village). They took a picture of him with the green ribbon and let him go.

The worst material damage was perpetrated on the tiny school in which 10 village children study – 1^st to 4^th grades. The settlers ran amok there and destroyed everything they could, broke cupboards and doors and vandalized books and notebooks. Schools are a permanent target for settlers’ harassment – the settlers prefer Palestinians without any knowledge or education. “Have you gone back to school already?” we asked J.’s young son. Sure, he answered. We put everything back in order and cleaned up the next day.

During their “search” the vandals broke TV sets and kitchen utensils, stole work tools, a jackhammer and a generator, as well as money, gold and jewels. What does this have to do with a weapons search? J. asked. Rhetorically, of course.

J., who refuses to bow down to the pogromists, summed it up in short: “First you come and say ‘illegal construction’; then you say ‘this is state land’, and then, ‘this is a firing zone’; And now you plant ammunition among my stuff? Tomorrow some settler will be killed in Gaza, and you’ll blame us for that too?”

In the photo: the family’s young children in better times

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

Webmaster comments: I hope that the mainstream Israeli media will follow up with the military spokesperson office, trying to make sense of the military version. Here are some simple logical questions to ask:

• Were armed settlers allowed to join or follow the IDF convoy into the village? If so, why?
• Were the settlers allowed to wear IDF uniform as they joined the military? Again, if so, why? As our original report indicates, this dress-up act allowed the Israeli police to refuse to come on the scene when called by residents for help, claiming “these are soldiers and we don’t deal with soldiers”.
• Why did the soldiers not stop the settlers’ rampant vandalism and violence in the village in the soldiers’ presence?
• Why did the soldiers allow settlers to beat up S., then instead of providing medical assistance arrested him when the “evidence” against him was so clearly fake, that the police released him right away?
• What is the military doing about the report that S. was tortured by soldiers while in custody, including putting out cigarette butts on his bare skin?
• Why did the soldiers force a green piece of cloth on Mr. Raba’i, a respected village leader, take his picture, and pretend it was a “Hamas flag” that they found?

Dec. 8: Israeli Settler-Soldiers Perpetrate Pogrom in Khalet a-Dabe’, Massafer Yatta; Kidnap 2 Residents

Khalet a-Dabe’ is near the center of Massafer Yatta. It is visible (with a different English transliteration) at the bottom of this map. A larger 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.

On the morning of Friday December 8, around 6:30 a.m. a convoy of about 10 civilian vehicles and an ATV came out of Avigail settlement and raided Khalet a-Dabe’, a tiny village inside Masafer Yatta. Khalet a-Dabe’ is within the illegally-declared “918 firing zone”, whose residents were defined as expellable by Israel’s “High Court of Justice” last year. For about 3 hours, about 50 settlers dressed up as soldiers carried out a pogrom in the village, with Israeli soldiers protecting them. Some of the vandals were identified as settlers from Havat Ma’on.

They entered all homes in the village, destroyed everything under the guise of “a search”, beat up and humiliated the villagers, who are not suspected of any kind of hostile activity. Settlers in uniform smashed windows and doors, broke or confiscated anything they found, including electric appliances, expensive tools such as jackhammers, generators, and more. They also entered the small schoolhouse and destroyed anything they could lay their hands on. As the picture below shows, they also destroyed food. The settlers/soldiers stole cash money from some houses, amounting to 37,000 NIS, including about 6,000 Jordanian Dinars (over 30,000 NIS). 12 valuable gold coins were also stolen.

During this pogrom, the soldiers(?) beat up and arrested local resident Salah Dababsah without any reason. They also arrested Mohammad Raba’i, head of a-Tuwani’s local council who tried to come to the village to assist. As of the night of December 10-11, 60 hours after the pogrom, we still have no information why the two were arrested [if indeed it was a formal arrest and not a rogue abduction of the type that took place last week in Umm Al-Kheir], and where they were taken.   

The settlers beat up many villagers, among them an elderly man who passed out and lost consciousness, as well as two elderly women – one of whom was later taken to hospital in Yatta. A Palestinian ambulance was alerted but the soldiers stopped it and would not let it enter the village. Numerous calls to the police received the reply that “since soldiers are involved”, the police had no intention of coming. Thus, the villagers were in fact abandoned and left defenseless for the settlers to abuse them.

[Note: Occupation soldiers are officially outside the jurisdiction of Israeli police. But it is also true that the police is now under the ministerial authority of Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Jewish supremacist and rabid anti-Palestinian who’s made no secret of his intent to use the police mostly as a tool for abusing Palestinians, rather than protecting all residents.]

The villagers noted that the level of violence was outstanding, the settlers were driven crazy with hatred. 

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