Last Saturday Martha and Beth were invited by the Regional Committee of the South Hebron Hills, comprised of leaders from several Palestinian villages, and Christian Peace Team (CPT) to join them and other international groups in Susiya, a village south of Hebron. As has happened numerous times in the past, the people of Susiya are currently facing the demolishment of their housing (tents) and eviction from their lands.

In the 1830’s, Palestinian families left their villages to purchase nearby land in the South Hebron region. Families developed a unique culture and way of life based on sheep herding, agriculture, and cave dwelling. The 1967 Israeli occupation led to the expropriation of the Palestinian farmers’ land here and elsewhere. From the early 1980’s the Israeli government confiscated land to build settlements.

The illegal Israeli settlement of Susya was built in 1983, two km southeast of an archeological site, which included an ancient synagogue. In the late 1990’s, the Israeli military established a military base near this site. Both actions led to evictions of the Palestinian community of Susiya from their cave dwellings and houses. These Palestinians then moved some 500 meters from the Israeli settlement of Susya to an area know as Rujum.
 

One night in the early 1990’s, Israeli soldiers herded the Palestinians into trucks and dumped them some 15 km to the north. The expelled families spread out in all directions. However, some of the families returned to the Susiya area within a couple of days, living on the lands that belonged to them, in an area between the Susya settlement and the archeological site.

The mid-1990's saw the spread of Israeli settlements and illegal "outposts" in the region, all constructed in areas previously seized by the army. Thus, under the protection of the Israeli military, Israeli settlers managed to grab more and more land belonging to the Palestinian inhabitants of Susiya.

Increasingly violent in their actions, settlers stopped Palestinian farmers from cultivating their plots of land, regularly attacking and beating them. In the course of this struggle over land, three Palestinian inhabitants were murdered. During the 1990’s, the Israeli military continuously destroyed Susiya villagers’ property in an effort to convince the Palestinian families to leave the area. But the Palestinians rebuilt their homes. While Beth and Martha were in Susiya they saw the remains of a house that was demolished in 1997, rebuilt and then demolished a second time. The demolition of this expanded home left 35 people homeless.
 

Again in 2001 the Palestinians from Susiya and residents of other villages near the western cave area in the South Hebron Hills were evicted. The Israeli military brought in heavy machinery. Many Palestinians were beaten and arrested, caves were demolished, wells blocked up with sand and rocks, fields destroyed (including at least 1000 olive trees) and livestock killed (buried alive in their pens). One week after the initial demolition, the Israeli military returned, bulldozing the tents the Red Cross had supplied to the families.

In September 2001, with the help of lawyer Shlomo Lecker, the villagers submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) demanding the Israeli government permit them to return to their land. The HCJ pronounced the repeated expulsions illegal and presented an interim injunction instructing the army to allow the inhabitants to return to their land until the court issued another future decision. However, the Israeli military continued to prevent the inhabitants of the Susiya region from returning by declaring a “closed military zone.” The military forbid the residents of Susiya from rebuilding the ruined structures. Since fall of 2001, the families of Susiya have lived winter and summer in tents and shacks.
 

In early September 2004, the Israeli HCJ decided it would leave intact the injunction from 2001 barring the Israeli military from demolishing and evacuating the village of Susiya. The judges suggested the lawyer representing the villagers should try to obtain permits from the Israeli Civil Administration (or District Coordination Office – DCO) that would legalize the existing structures. The judges reprimanded the state after learning the temporary tent structures were destroyed in September 2001 without a permit, apparently on the order of a low-ranking officer. One of the judges said, “The state did not establish a legal procedure which would allow for a building permit, hence the state is not carrying out its duties and is creating a situation under which a human’s basic existence becomes impossible.”

The State of Israel, intent on dispossessing the Palestinian cave dwellers, shifted its argument. It now claims the Palestinians are in fact trespassers on their own lands-- because following their eviction from old Susiya village (next to the archeological site), they have built their homes without the necessary building permits from the Israeli DCO’s “Sub-committee for Construction Oversight”. Therefore, they conclude that these homes must be demolished.

On June 6, 2007 the HCJ, in an about-face, dismissed the original appeal and gave villagers one more month to submit the required building plan to the DCO for legal building permits. The Palestinian residents of Susiya submitted a detailed building plan to the DCO, via their Israeli attorney. “The Sub-committee for Construction Oversight”, sitting in the Beit-El settlement north of Jerusalem rejected the plan on technical grounds: the plots in the plan were two meters short of the required forty meters, and the residents needed “special cause” in order to submit a revised plan.

On June 21 and 25, 2007, the villagers tried to coordinate with the DCO for permission for surveyors to go on the land to obtain measurements for a new map, but the DCO denied them permission, even though the villagers’ Israeli lawyer received verbal permission over the phone. Even if, the Susiya residents are able to create a map acceptable to the DCO, it is highly likely their applications for legal building permits will be denied.

The villagers need land for their sheep to graze on, which is their livelihood, however they are not allowed access to enough of it. They are not allowed to use 85% of the wells in the area. The settlers are allowed use of all of them. So, in order to “mark their territory”, the settlers have planted olive trees in barrels around the water wells.
 

When we were in the village, we were told that the three actors involved in the land confiscation and demolitions are the Israeli Civil Administration, the Israeli army, and the Israeli settlers. They work cleverly and strategically together to continue the presence of the settlers and drive out the Palestinians.

There were eight local villages represented at the meeting on Saturday. Everyone was there to learn about the situation, and for the Palestinian villages to unite together in order to hold onto their lands. The Susiya villagers gave a tour of the land and asked for international presence in case they ran into problems from soldiers and/or settlers. One CPT volunteer, fluent in Arabic, translated for the internationals.

On the tour, we saw an illegal Israeli settler tent (or outpost), an illegal Israeli settlement, the archeological site with an army base nearby, the remains of demolished homes, and two caves with demolished roofs. During our tour, there was a Palestinian coming our way on a donkey, who was stopped by the soldiers and told to turn back. It is “illegal” for any Palestinians, other than the residents, to cross this land.
 

After this incident, the soldiers proceeded our way. Some internationals documented what happened and others volunteered to intervene if problems with settlers or soldiers arose. These international volunteers were placed in groups of two at the front, middle, and back of the crowd. Beth was at the back, near the approaching soldiers. She and some internationals stood by the two older Palestinian men as they talked with the soldiers. After that, the soldiers walked away, but continued to monitor the group very closely.

 

When we proceeded, an older Palestinian man showed us the land to which he had a title. He told us his devastating story about how the soldiers had arrested him and demolished his home. He continued to go back to his land though, and when the soldiers told him to leave, he replied that “he would live and die on this land”. When the soldiers shot his sheep, he said he would buy more, but he would stay. The man also built a tent, which was destroyed. At one point, he asked the soldiers why they acted like animals, but received no reply.

We all walked on a road which the Palestinians are not allowed to use that would enable them to get into Yatta, a near by town, in ten minutes. The road that they must use takes an hour and a half. We then walked on a road alongside an old Roman road towards a gated area that separated the land from the nearby synagogue and military base. The soldiers came much closer. One young boy from Susiya turned to Beth and said, “This is the first time I have come this close to the gate”. This was on his land.
 

Then the army closed in and called for police back up. We ignored them for a time, continuing our tour. On our way back to the tents, a policeman asked our translator what we were doing. He told the police that the Palestinians were showing us their land. The soldiers had thought we were having a funeral. This made Beth and Martha very curious about why they would be so persistent in following and monitoring our group, if they believed we were merely holding a funeral procession. But this is how illogical the occupation is.

After our tour, although the villagers live extremely simply, they invited us into their tent and fed us a delicious lunch, which the women had been preparing. The bread was especially delectable, and we found out that the women bake it freshly every morning. We were amazed once again by the Palestinians’ hospitality.

(All of the history of Susiya provided comes from Christian Peace Team)