The West Bank Blog

'South Hebron Hill'

My calling it 'South Hebron Hill' seems to have been a bad translation from the Hebrew. My destination twelve days ago (Sat 13/1/'07) was in fact the southern Hebron Hills or, more precisely an area called Masafer Yatta. A group of more than two hundred Israelis came to meet more than a hundred local Palestinians from the Susya communality. The event was meant to be big, meant to catch the imagination of the press and the public. For that reason the place and the people we visited were quite tragic, even by West Bank standards. The people of Susya are famous as the "Cave Dwellers". Since at least the 1830s they've lived in caves which they've dug in the ground up the hill. They're more excavations: underground rooms with doors and windows in the ceiling above. Waling on the surface, the windows look like small wells. These were pointed out proudly to the visiting Israelis. By 1985 when the authorities turned their attention to Susya, they were also living in more conventional houses, built alongside the caves. In that there was a nock of the door and they were ordered out. Their land had been declared a national park. The excuse being the presence in their midst of the remains of a 4th century synagogue, which was also an early mosque.

Where we stood atop a hill, we overlooked valleys on three sides. The town of Yatta (pop. 60,000) lay bellow us to the North. To the North-West was the old village of Susya, from which they were expelled in '85. On the western side there was an army base. In the valley bellow us to the South was the current residents of the Susya villagers. Beyond that on the next hill two hill-top settlements. The land surrounding these settlements cannot be entered by Palestinians. They had for a time lived where we stood atop the hill, but had been ordered out in 2001. Officially, and certainly for the purposes of our visit, they were permitted to be there. But in our absence the military would not allow it. They are surrounded in their village, although they have negotiated permision for passage for a few hours each morning so that food and suplies can be brought to them.

We wondered on the plateau on top of the hill. The old village Susya was pointed out bellow us on the next hill. We could see the ruins of the 4th century synagogue and medieval mosque, the reason why it was declared a national heritage site, the official reason why its inhabitants were expelled and why they may not encroach on that land. I might visit a gain some day to take a look at the archaeology there. I am allowed in, and it looks interesting. There were many talks, mostly through loud speakers, often incomprehensible. I translated some for the foreigners present, a gaggle of NGO volunteers and one or two travellers. None of it is memorable. On the way back to the large tent where official speeches would be made and coffee handed out some Palestinians pointed out the 'caves'. What we could see were holes in the ground. They initially looked like wells, but on closer inspection more like square man-holes, fortified with small stone walls. We looked down into rooms, chasms in just under the ground. The holes we were looking through were the windows. But, although these are built down and not up, these 'structures' too require official planning permission, which is not forthcoming. So most of the villagers now live in tents.

As speeches were made we stood and chatted. Then there was a kafuffle over on western side of the hill. Some settler girls had wondered over for their Shabbat stroll. Too many people came over to meet them. But of course, so did I. The police did not. They were surrounded by a crowd, leftists, Palestinians, and media. Some people were pushing others back, trying to prevent a confrontation. People were shouting. I and a couple of others were saying "khalas" ("enough" in Arabic) to some of the Palastinians. We said Shabbat Shalom to the girls and told them to go. There was no point in their being there. Then, as they left, some of the TV cameramen followed them. A Palestinian woman shouted at them to stop filming them. When they did she shouted at the journalist that they should be ashamed of themselves for filming religious people on Shabbat. It turned out that she was (probably) the only Palestinian-Israeli in the Israeli group. I mentioned to a journalist that it seemed to me that the story here was not the settlers' provocation, but that it was a Palestinian who was defending their religious rights. The cameras swung round and fixed on me. I told them off again, as the Palestinian had done.

On the way back to the coaches I saw an Army jeep with a small picture of the Lubavitche Rebbe placed in the middle of the front windscreen. He is the now deceased Rabbi of the chabbad movement who claim that he is/was the messiah. His followers, particularly in the West Bank, are known for their extremism vis a vis the Arabs. His picture in the front of the jeep was a clear symbol of where that vehicle's commander's allegiances lie.

We got back on the coaches and snaked our way out of the West Bank, then past Ashkelon and back up to Tel-Aviv for just another evening in the city. I went to the pub to watch the Arsenal beat Blackburn Rover 2-0 away. A good result. We stormed into and back out of the lives of Susya's former residents. They're still there, we're not. I doubt that they have benefitted for it. Their case will come before the Israeli supreme court (Bagatz) on the 29th of this month. It will decide on the ownership of what was their land.

On Friday at 2:15 in the afternoon I'm going to meet up at Jerusalem's central bus station with my friend David Bernstein. Then we're going to get a bust to Kiryat Arba, just by Hebron. I'll stay there for Shabat with settler friends of David's. I'll pray with the Hebron settlers in the synagogue of the Tomb of the Patriarchs. It ought to be interesting.

Just a short notice about forthcoming posts.

This Saturday I'm going for a tour of the South Hebron Hill, where the local farmers and shepherds are subject to a concerted campaign by settlers to drive them from their homes. The next week I'll be spending Shabbat (from Friday after noon till Saturday night, it being winter) with the settlers of Hebron. I'll be staying with a family in Kiryat Arba, a large settlement adjacent to the city, then praying at the synagogue in the Hebron settlement in the heart of Hebron. The family are friends of a friend, with whom I'll be going.

My initial instinct to opt for the widest range of activity with Yesh Din makes for interesting experiences. But the course towards which I am writing this blog as a diary requires me to read certain patters of bureaucratic or authoritarian control into some of what I witness. This is proving difficult when constantly switching from one thing to another. So, over the next few months I intent to alternate between a continued variety with Yesh Din and concentrated with the Rabbis. They have a new project focusing on house demolitions in the Jerusalem area. These are cases in which Palestinians have built houses or extensions without the required Israeli planning permission, which can be difficult to attain. These structures are then demolished by the army. By concentrating on this issue, I might be able to again a little more insight than I have done hitherto.