7 June 2009: Police close investigation in settler attack case

7 June 2009

Recently, the Hebron police closed the investigation into the attack of Palestinian shepherds near Susiya in June 2008, on grounds of “offender unknown”.

Description of the event:

On 8 June 2008, ‘Imran a-Nawaj'ah, 32, went with two of his children to graze his flock south of the settlement, on a plot of land belonging to a resident of the nearby Samu' Village. Although an Israeli court has declared the land a military zone closed to Israelis, two settlers drove up to the shepherds on a tractor and tried to drive them off the land. When a-Nawaj'ah refused and told the settlers he had court permission to be on the land, they threatened him and then drove off toward the settlement. Fearing an attack, A-Nawaj'ah sent his son to the encampment to call for reinforcement. Khalil, 61, Tamam, 60, and Rabiha A-Nawaj'ah, 29, came quickly to the spot along with Muna, 25, who managed to film the settlers leaving the site:

About ten minutes later, she captured on camera four settlers marching toward the family, with clubs in their hands and their faces covered. The footage shows Tamam (in brown, on the right), Khalil (in white) and ‘Imran (in red, with a hat). The settlers then began attacking ‘Imran with their clubs:

Muna then dropped the camera and ran for help. Meanwhile, the settlers severely beat Khalil, Tamam, and ‘Imran and left the spot. About half an hour later, ‘Imran's sons managed to stop an army jeep on the main road, a few hundred meters from the scene of the assault, and asked the soldiers to call for help. Another half hour passed, during which the soldiers did not provide the injured with first-aid, and then an army ambulance and police patrol van arrived. Tamam was taken to Soroka Hospital, in Israel, and another family member filmed the other victims waiting for a Red Crescent ambulance to arrive. The footage shows Muna sitting with the wounded Khalil and ‘Imran:

While they waited, a policeman took Muna and Khalil's testimony, as well as the video tape documenting the incident. Tamam was released from the hospital four days later and described the event to a B'Tselem worker:

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Means of Expulsion

For the past five years, Israel has been trying to expel some one thousand Palestinians who have maintained the way of life of their ancestors in the southern Hebron hills.

1 July 2005

בית ששרפו מתנחלים בקהילת חי'רבת א-ספאיי א-תחתא בדרום הר חברון

Settler Violence = State Violence

Israel using Gaza war to forcibly transfer Palestinians from South Hebron Hills

Since the war in Gaza began, Israel has greatly increased its efforts to drive Palestinian shepherding communities out of their homes and land in the South Hebron Hills, including in the area designated Firing Zone 918. The communities are being subjected to unusually extreme violence on a daily level, carried out by settlers with state backing and military and police support. The attacks have been virtually incessant, with little relief. By night and by day, armed settlers have entered residents’ homes, assaulted them and overturned their belongings, taking away their mobile phones to prevent documentation. They have destroyed solar power systems and water containers, stolen livestock and in some communities, as in Khirbet Susiya, threatened to kill residents if they do not leave within a short period. For many years, Israel has sought to take control of this area by making the Palestinian residents’ lives so unbearable, they abandon their homes and land seemingly of their own accord. This strategy is two-pronged: officially, the authorities impose extreme restrictions on construction and development in these communities, and forbid them from hooking up to power and water grids; unofficially, settlers carry out systematic violence against the communities, driving shepherds away, restricting access to water sources and encroaching on pastureland. In May 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the state had the authority to declare much of the South Hebron Hills a firing zone and expel some 1,000 Palestinian residents, who have lived there for generations, long before Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967. The court’s decision was given 22 years after the initial petition was filed. During that time, Israel put the residents’ lives on hold and prevented them from building homes and public structures or developing basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and roads. Since the court handed down its decision, and especially since the Netanyahu government was formed in early 2023, Israel has intensified both official and unofficial efforts. The military has added draconian measures to the existing restrictions on freedom of movement, set up new checkpoints, blocked roads with concrete cubes and dirt mounds, and confiscated vehicles from residents or people working in the area. It has also sent troops to train in the area, carrying out maneuvers that include live fire, very close to homes. Meanwhile, settlers have stepped up violent attacks aimed at damaging the residents’ livelihoods. The settlers’ attacks are carried out in the open, with state backing. The military is not only aware of them but often chooses not to intervene. Soldiers sometimes escort the settlers, providing them protection and at times even participating in the violence. Some of the settlers involved in these incidents have been enlisted for reserve military duty during the war, and are carrying them out as part of their military service. The police, as always, refrains from investigating the incidents and the harm caused to the residents, often threatening the Palestinian complainants instead. To date, the police has not arrested anyone responsible for the violent incidents, although some are well-known in the area and some incidents were documented. This reality is not new. It is a direct continuation of Israel's longstanding policy to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the area in order to gain control of the land for its own uses. Now, cynically exploiting the fact that public attention is focused on the war in Gaza, Israel has decided to escalate its efforts and appears to be succeeding. Since 7 October 2023, five communities in the South Hebron Hills have already been forcibly transferred: Khirbet a-Radhem, Khirbet Zanutah, ‘Enizan, ‘Atiriyah, and Maktal Msalam. In some cases, the residents fled without all their belongings, which were then looted and destroyed by settlers. These communities left behind their source of livelihood – pastureland and fields they cultivated to feed their livestock – in addition to wells and water cisterns that served the communities, agricultural equipment, tents, solar panels and mobile phones. The community of al-Widady was forcibly transferred before 7 October. Other area communities, including Khirbet Susiya, Maghayir al-‘Abid, al-Mufaqarah, a-Rakeez, Um al-Kheir, Sadet a-Tha’leh, Khirbet a-Tuba, Khirbet a-Safai al-Tahta, Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’, Khirbet Jenbah, Khirbet Lasefar, Qawawis, and Khirbet Sarurah, are at risk of similar transfer. The Palestinians have no one left to defend them. Residents’ attempts at self-defense are met with more violence, arrests and even gunfire. The military and police are also trying to remove Israeli and international activists, who stay in the area to help the residents and have extensive documentation of the settlers’ actions In these circumstances, it seems only a matter of time before Israel succeeds in taking over the entire area. Apparently, it has abandoned any pretense of trying to protect Palestinian residents in the South Hebron Hills, and has decided to carry out the war crime of forcibly transferring them.

13 November 2023

Communities Facing Expulsion

Top diplomats from 17 countries tour Palestinian communities Israel is trying to expel from South Hebron Hills

The representatives of 17 countries, including EU members as well as other countries, are currently visiting Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills, whose residents Israel is seeking to expel. Since 2000 the residents have been waging a legal struggle in Israel's High Court of Justice. Last August, before the last hearing in the case, the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research revealed a document that proved what was already clear: Israel had declared the area a firing zone to facilitate the expulsion of its residents. The judges ignored that information and the residents are currently awaiting their ruling. Heads of delegations and other diplomats are currently visiting Palestinian communities in the Masafer Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills, whose home Israel has declared as “Firing Zone 918”, in an effort to drive them out. Around 1,000 residents are awaiting a forthcoming ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice in the latest petition in their decades-long struggle against Israel’s attempts. On the tour are representatives of the EU and of member states Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Ireland, as well as the UK, Norway, Switzerland and Canada, which concur with the EU’s position that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are unlawful and that Israel’s policy of forcible transfer of Palestinians is unacceptable. At the village of Khirbet al-Majaz, the participants are visiting the local school, built with EU funding, and meeting community leaders along with Nidal Younis, head of the Masafer Yatta local council, and Nasser Nawaj’ah, a resident of Susiya and Field Researcher for B’Tselem. The tour, which is adhering the most up-to-date Covid-19 safety guidelines, was organized by Israeli NGOs Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem. Breaking the Silence Executive Director Avner Gvaryahu said: “We have come here today to announce that we will not stand by while the State of Israel declares hundreds of people illegal residents in their own homes. We will not stay silent when soldiers are sent to expel people from their homes, in which they lived long before the first Israeli soldier set foot in the West Bank. We invite everyone to come here with us and look these people in the eye. That is more than the policymakers, who are forcing entire families to live in constant fear of being driven out of their homes, have ever done. This is expulsion. This is occupation.” B’Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad added that “Israel has coveted Masafer Yatta for decades, viewing it as an area ready for exploitation were it not for what it perceives as the fly in the ointment – Palestinians who live in the area. The state wishes to expel all these families, demolish their homes and destroy their livelihoods, on one pretext or another. Declaring the area a firing zone was the excuse; cleansing the territory of Palestinians is the goal. This criminal plan must be stopped.” Background: In the early 1980s, the Israeli military declared an area of about 3,000 hectares in the South Hebron Hills known as Masafer Yatta a restricted military zone, dubbed 'Firing Zone 918'. At the time, dozens of Palestinian families had been living in the area for years, since before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. They lived in 12 small villages and earned a living as farmers and shepherds. In October and November 1999, the military expelled around 700 residents of these communities. Following the expulsion, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Attorney Shlomo Lecker filed a petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) on behalf of some 200 families. The court issued an interim injunction, in power to this day, that prohibited the state to expel the residents but also put their lives on hold. They continue to live in their homes and work their land, under constant threat of demolition, expulsion and dispossession. They are also barred from new development. Left with no choice, the communities built new homes without permits, as well as the necessary infrastructure, including for supplying water and power. The Israeli authorities issued demolition orders for these structures and in many cases carried them out, and confiscated infrastructure equipment, while many other demolition orders remain in power. Since 2006 and until the end of September 2020, B’Tselem has documented the demolition of 66 structures, which were home to 358 people, including 163 minors, in these communities. Since the beginning of 2012, B’Tselem has also documented the demolition of 21 non-residential structures in these communities. After 20-odd years of legal proceedings, the High Court is set to issue its ruling soon. In the last hearing on the matter, held on 10 August 2020, the state argued that the petitioners had not been permanent residents of the area when it was declared a “firing zone”, and therefore had no right to continue living in their homes. It further argued that the communities were taking advantage of the interim injunction: people not included in it were moving into the area and residents were building without permits. The state counsel claimed that Israel had been willing to offer a “compromise,” such as allowing residents to live in their homes for two months a year with prior coordination or on weekends and Jewish holidays when the military does not train in the area, but that the petitioners had rejected all the proposals – which would have effectively destroyed their lives and forced them to leave. Relying on this statement, the justices directed the petitioners to examine various solutions that would enable the military to train in their area of residence, maintaining that “the solution lies in one balance or another.” In doing so, the court ignored an Akevot Institute finding last August that declaring the area a firing zone had been intended from the outset to help drive the Palestinians out, and was never a military necessity.

19 October 2020