There are several checkpoints in the southern Hebron hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them no military presence is apparent. These are Zif Junction, Dura-alFawwar crossing and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron
keep reading at http://www.machsomwatch.org/en/reports/checkpoints/23/04/2012/morning/20664?checkpoint=343
As we do every week, last Thursday April 5 2012 we went to visit several Palestinian localities in the South Hebron Hills, with whom we have been in contact for some years now. Two members of our little group – Hamed and Erella – just got back that day from a Britain tour as representatives of the Villages Group. So this week’s small visitor team consisted of Ehud and Danny.
We began with a short visit to the preschool (nursery school) in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir. This preschool, opened nearly a year ago, is located in an old building with several rooms renovated with the aid of UNRWA, close to the Saraya of Umm al-Kheir (a term that during the Ottoman Empire days designated a government structure). Two local teachers run the preschool with about twenty children, and receive their salary through the Villages Group. The preschool has undergone a significant change lately – one teacher is now in charge of the younger children (two-three year olds) in the room used as the ‘bustan’ (pre-preschool), while her colleague is in charge of the older children (four-six years old), in the other room that serves as ‘rauda’, preschool.
keep reading at http://theonlydemocracy.org/2012/04/word-and-picture-diary-south-hebron-hills-weekly-visit-april-5-2012/
Duane Grady in The journal gazette
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120419/EDIT05/304199987/1147/EDIT07
On Tuesday, April 10th 2012, 70-year oldAbu Sh. with his son took out their herd to graze on the fields of Umm Al Amad, a village near Otniel colony. Eight colonist came down to them and chased them away.
On Wednesday, April 11th 2012 in the morning, S. took her herd to graze on the Nawajah lands in Rujum (Susya). Around 8:30-9 a.m., while she and the herd were in her family’s olive grove, S. saw seven masked colonists approaching her while throwing stones in her direction. S. Began to run and move the herd to safety in the wadi. The colonists caught up with her. Three of them carried sticks and pipes with which they hit her. S. tried to escape the blows but didn’t quite manage. She was hurt around her left eye, right elbow, rigtht ribs and back of the neck. One of her teeth was broken as well. S. was not carrying a cell phone on her during the assault, but the dwellers of the encampment heard and noticed the tumult and ran towards her, at which point the assailants ran off. Note that the assault took place about 300 meters below the military post. It could not have been possible for the soldiers to miss the incident. The Palestinian dwellers could hear the soldier posted there calling out to the colonists to get back, but did nothing more to prevent the attack. When the Occupation forces arrived, one of the soldiers was overheard saying “No need to summon police, her husband hit her”. Civil Administration officers asked the upset local residents to get back to their encampment, saying they “don’t want friction”. They added that “the police will come to your encampment to take testimony”. No police has done so to this moment! On Friday, April 13th 2012 (second holiday) in the morning, three international volunteer made their way from Tuba to at Tuwani villages. Around 8 a.m. two colonists from Havat Ma’on approached them, masked. They threw stones at the volunteers, one with a sling. Miraculously, the volunteers managed to get away unhurt. They called the police, reported the assault and asked for help. The reply was: “We’re not coming. If you wish, you can come to the police station and lodge a complaint”. Three hours later, seven cololnists went down to Khorouba valley, east of Havat Ma’on colony. Volunteers were escorting Palestinian shepherds on the spot. One of the colonists, masked, descended towards the olive grove and began to vandalize the trees. This act of vandalism was documented! We summoned police as well as a Civil Administration officer who arrived, and testimony was taken. On the way to the police station, near Gal Hill, not far from Kiryat Arba colony, we saw massive forces, as well as an ambulance and an injured person. Later we learned that Jewish colonists had destroyed about 200 olive trees there. This was documented, and colonists assaulted Palestinians who came to the spot. The police chose to arrest three Palestinians. How amazing… Happy Passover!For the past 10 years Ascherman’s organization and activists from the Jewish-Arab NGO Ta’ayush have been keeping track in frustration of the development of the Avigayil outpost in the South Hebron Hills. A few meters away from the land of the outpost are private lands of Palestinians whose rights to them are recognized by the government. The more the outpost expands, the greater the area that is inaccessible to the Palestinians, that the settlers are forcibly distancing them from every time they want to work their land.
“I remember the day when the first trailer was brought there,” says Ascherman. “Since then the outpost has been flourishing under the noses of the Civil Administration and before the eyes that see the large signs, ‘We are growing,’ posted by Amana, the construction entrepreneur of Judea and Samaria, along with details about how to contact them. Three weeks ago our people noticed preparatory excavations for a residential building and work on a new road. They went up to the outpost together with one of the Palestinian land owners, filmed the heavy equipment in operation and contacted the Civil Administration. An officer named Tomer arrived at the site with the land coordinator from the regional council.” Two days later it was reported that the work had been resumed. Israeli and international activists returned to the site, documented the activity and invited the police and Civil Administration.”
read the whole article in Ha’aretz at http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/sights-that-the-flytilla-activists-weren-t-allowed-to-see-1.424717
Palestinians, internationals and olive trees targets of the israeli settlers
April 14th, 2012
At-Tuwani – In the early morning of April 13th two israeli settlers of the Havat Ma’on outpost attacked and chased three international volunteers in Shaab Seedi Valley, throwing stones against them. At around 11 am six young settlers drove away three Palestinians and one international from Meshaha Hill, property of an inhabitant of the nearby At-Tuwani village. One of the young men, once down in Kharrouba Valley, damaged six olive trees.
The first attack occurred at 8:05 am, when two settlers from Havat Ma’on threw stones and chased away three international volunteers in Shaab Seedi Valley. The two men came out of a recently built house situated over 50 meters away from the outpost. After covering their faces, they started to violently throw stones against the three internationals, one of them using a slingshot. When the volunteers started to escape, the settlers ran after them for a long stretch of path, until the three runaways put themselves in a safe place. None of them got injured.
The second episode took place at 11:24 am when six young men from the Havat Ma’on outpost went on Meshaha Hill where a Palestinian woman and two minors were collecting herbs, accompanied by an international volunteer. The six teenagers, one of them whirling a slingshot, headed threateningly towards them, which escaped in the valley below. The group of settlers chased the Palestinians until the bottom of the hill, where one of the young men damaged six olive trees property of an At-Tuwani inhabitant. The olive trees represent a fundamental mean of support for the village.
After the incident some soldiers, both from the regular army and the DCO (District Coordination Office), and two police officers intervened, called by some Israeli activists which came by.
The soldiers briefly talked to the settlers and then left quickly, instead the DCO officer showed an arrogant behaviour towards two Palestinians which joined the area to verify the damages. The police gathered evidences of the event.
The settlers of the Havat Ma’on illegal outpost have been protagonists of several episodes of violence against both the internationals and the Palestinians. Since the beginning of the year the Operation Dove volunteers registered 24 settlers’ attacks, mostly aimed at pushing away the shepherds and the internationals from the hills surrounding the outpost. The attack occurred on April 13th is the fourth episode of overt violence since the beginning of the year carried out against the sole internationals, while the amount of Palestinian trees tore down and damaged since December 2011 rises to 39.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Video of the incident: http://goo.gl/0oe6l
Pictures of the incident: http://goo.gl/QhRHE
HEBRON, April 11, 2012 (WAFA) – A group of masked Jewish settlers Wednesday severely beat a Palestinian woman from Wadi Susiya, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, causing her cuts and bruises all over her body, according to a local activist.
Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern Hebron, told WAFA that Samiha Nawaja’a, 40, was severely beaten by seven masked settlers while she was near her house located adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Susiya, built illegally on Palestinian land.
He said the settlers beat Nawaja’a until several local shepherds who were in the area rushed to save her.
see original article here.
The Israeli Civil Administration – the Israeli military body that controls Area C of the occupied West Bank – has issued stop-work orders on solar panel and wind turbine systems in six separate communities in the South Hebron Hills.
(Photo: Jill Kestler-D’Amours, AIC)
Area C is the part of the West Bank under Israeli control, while Area A is under Palestinian control and Area B under joint control.
These orders in Area C are seen as the first step to demolishing the renewable energy systems entirely. The systems were installed by the Israeli group Community Electricity and Technology Middle East (COMET-ME), and funded in large part by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
(Photo: Jill Kestler-D’Amours, AIC)
(Photo: Jill Kestler-D’Amours, AIC)
Primarily farming and herding communities, Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills rely on COMET-ME energy systems for lighting, refrigeration, and the production of dairy products for their own consumption and for sale.
(Photo: Jill Kestler-D’Amours, AIC)
(Photo: Jill Kestler-D’Amours, AIC)
Currently, COMET-ME’s solar panel and wind turbine installations provide electricity to more than 1,500 people in 19 communities throughout the South Hebron Hills area, which counts a total Palestinian population of approximately 8,000. Should the demolitions go ahead, at least 500 Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills would literally be left in the dark.
Approximately 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C, which accounts for over 60 percent of the West Bank. As the occupying power, Israel has a responsibility under international humanitarian law to guarantee that the basic needs of residents living under its control are met. This includes providing Palestinians with adequate housing, health, education and water rights.
Despite this, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) found that between 2000 and 2007, the Israeli Civil Administration rejected 94 percent of Palestinian building permit applications. During the same period, 5,000 demolition orders were issued, and more than 1,600 Palestinian buildings were demolished.
By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
SHE’B EL-BUTTUM, WEST BANK, Mar 30, 2012 (IPS) - A handful of makeshift homes built from small boulders and plastic tarps and secured with thick ropes sit in the isolated community of She’b El- Buttum in the South Hebron Hills. A few metres away, several rows of solar panels and two wind turbines are affixed to the rocky hilltop, providing electricity to the village’s 150 residents.
“We use the electricity for the milking machine, for the washing machine, the fridge, and for getting light when night falls,” says Ismail Al-Jabarin, a 43-year-old She’b El-Buttum resident. “Before getting access to electricity, we lived on a generator that functioned two hours a day only, and had frequent problems. It is much, much better with electricity.”
As herders who rely on goats, sheep and other animals for their livelihoods, residents of She’b El-Buttum used to spend three hours a day manually churning milk into butter. With access to reliable electricity, the process now takes only half an hour.
“If the military forces come and destroy the electricity, our life will turn miserable again,” Al-Jabarin tells IPS. “Our life is much more comfortable with electricity. Life without electricity is deplorable and very difficult.”
keep reading at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107249
