This Friday, join Combatants for Peace in marching in solidarity with the residents of Susya, currently living under the immediate threat of forced displacement. 

Shuttles leaving:
8:00 - Tel Aviv (Arlozoroff train station next to Shlomo Sixt)
9:00- Jerusalem (Teddy Stadium)
9:30- Beer Sheva (Parking lot of Merkaz Hamorim)

Please register on the form here
Facebook event here
 
Estimated return time: 14:00 

Please bring a hat, water, sunscreen and a snack.

PLEASE NOTE: Combatants for Peace considers it necessary to inform that the situation in Susya is sensitive in terms of local settlers who oppose the protest, as well as in terms of the army presence. CFP is a bi-national movement advocating non-violence. In all of our activities, we emphasize non-violent protest.

#SaveSusiya

The High Court justice who gave the army a green light to expel an entire Palestinian village just happens to live in a nearby settlement, one of many that thrives on their dispossession.

By Dror Etkes; +972 Blog

The Israeli army’s Civil Administration has issued 70 demolition orders in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, and 70 demolition orders in the Palestinian village of Khirbet Susya over the years.

Beyond that coincidental number, the two towns don’t have much else in common. Located in Gush Etzion, just south of Jerusalem, Alon Shvut is one of the most prosperous and well-established settlements in the West Bank. Its 3,200 residents enjoy top-notch community services and a highly desirable quality of life not only in relation to their Palestinian neighbors, but also to the general Israeli population. Khirbet Susya, on the other hand, is a collection of tents, sheds and shacks that lack the most basic civil infrastructure. Its 350 residents are scattered on a few hilltops known only to a small number of people.

On May 16, Palestinians from South Hebron Hills and from different popular Struggle Committee of all West Bank, Israeli an international activists, gathered in Susiya village (that is suffering for the imminent eviction’s threat) in order to demonstrate their solidarity with the villagers.

The demonstration was also to remember the Nakba of 1948, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled  from their own land and hundreds of Palestinians town and villages were destroyed.

(italian follows)

Il 16 maggio i palestinesi delle Colline a Sud di Hebron e di vari Comitati di Resistenza Popolare da tutta la Cisgiordania, assieme ad attivisti israeliani e internazionali, si sono radunati a Susiya (che è sotto minaccia di demolizione) per manifestare la loro solidarietà verso gli abitanti di questo villaggio.

La manifestazione è stata fatta anche in ricorrenza del memoriale della Nakba del 1948, quando circa 700,000 Palestinesi furono espulsi dalla propria terra e molte delle loro città e villaggi distrutti.

A Palestinian child was detained without their parents being present. Families needed a Municipality aid to keep themselves in a safe place after the demolition.

(Italian follows)

January 21, 2015

At Tuwani – South Hebron Hills, West Bank

On January 20, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian child near the village of Maghayir Al Abeed and demolished four structures in the Palestinian village of Ar-Rifa’iyya in the South Hebron Hills area.

At about 9.00 a.m. IDF bulldozers started to tear down two houses and two animal shelters, belonged to the Palestinian Rabai family in Ar-Rifa’iyya. The demolitions affected a total of twenty-five people, included ten children. The Municipality placed two tents to let the people involved have a place to stay at least during the night. Only twenty days ago, on December 31, in the village of Ad-Deirat, close to Ar-Rifa’iyya, two settlers broke a window and threw a molotov cocktail inside a Palestinian-owned house, trying to burn it (read more).
Ar-Rifa’iyya and Ad-Deirat villages are located in Area C, under Israeli military and administrative control.

In the meanwhile of the Ar-Rifa’iyya demolitions, Israeli army and police jeeps reached the area of Old Havat Ma’on Hill near the Palestinian village of Maghayir Al Abeed, where some young Palestinian shepherds were grazing their flocks. An Israeli soldier run against a Palestinian child, aged 14. The soldier chase away his flock, put him inside the military jeep with one goat and detained him. After one hour, the Israeli Army released him in a seriously dangerous place between the Israeli illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on and the Israeli settlement of Ma’on. In this place several times Palestinians, including children, were attacked by Israeli settlers.
Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies stated that during 2014 the Israeli soldiers arrested 1200 Palestinian children, an issue that shows a 60% increase comparing to 2013, when the soldiers arrested 750 children.

Despite demolitions and arrests, Palestinians from South Hebron Hills are strongly committed in a nonviolent and popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the demolitions: http://goo.gl/MTRntt

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Israeli settlers burn a house in Ad-Deirat. Israeli forces demolish a tent in Al-Mufaqarah.

(Italian follows)

December 31, 2014

At-Tuwani – On December 31, at about 3:00 am, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian house in the South Hebron hills village of Ad-Deirat. In the same day, at about 12:50 pm, Israeli forces demolished a tent in the village of Al-Mufaqarah.

As witnessed by Palestinians, at about 3:00 am two settlers wrote with black spray near the front door of a Palestinian’s house in the village of Ad-Deirat a sentence, in which is recognizable only the word: “revenge“. Then, settlers broke a window and threw a molotov cocktail inside the house. The molotov cocktail damaged furniture and the television, but didn’t injure any Palestinian living in the house as they were all sleeping in another room.

In the same day, at about 12:50 pm, Israeli forces demolished a tent and a cement base for a tent, both belonging to a Palestinian family, in the village of Al-Mufaqarah. The tent was a storage of food for the sheep and for the wood used by the family to protect itself from the winter cold.

Palestinians in South Hebron hills have suffered the Israeli settlers’ presence since the 70s. The settlers, occupying Palestinian-owned lands, deprive the Palestinians of their main livelihood. Moreover the settlers, with their ongoing violence, prevent Palestinians from having a regular daily life and restrict their freedom of movement, thus forcing them to leave the South Hebron hills area.

Ad-Deirat and Al-Mufaqarah villages are located in Area C, under Israeli military and administrative control. That means that all the constructions must be approved by the Israeli administration. Israel denies Palestinians the right to build on the 70 percent of Area C, which is about the 44 percent of all the West Bank, while within the remaining 30 percent a series of restrictions are applied in order to prevent Palestinians from obtaining building permits (source: OCHA oPt).

Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly committed to nonviolent popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the settlers ’price tag’ attack in Ad-Deirat: http://goo.gl/hrU4RJ

Video of the demolition in Al-Mufaqarah: http://youtu.be/Veht8zZuCfY

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

After the Israeli army carried on several demolitions in the Bedouin village of Um Al Kher during the months of October and November, Palestinian inhabitants together with Israeli activists and supported by several International NGOs are now building new structures.

The European Union provided three tin-plated shelters to be used as houses, through the program “Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection”. Palestinians together with Israeli activists rebuilt the traditional oven for the third time, after it was recently illegally demolished once again; worked on an old well that can now provide water to the village through pumps; built a dirt patch that leads to the above-mentioned well.

On November 19 the DCO issued demolition orders for the three tin-plated shelters. Nevertheless Palestinian inhabitants of Um Al Kher are still strongly committed to the nonviolent popular resistance as a way of defending their right to live on their own land.

The well recently improved with water pumps.

Palestinians and Israeli activists work at the new dirt-patch on December 13.

One of three new tin-plated shelters recently provided by the European Union and already under demolition order.

In corso i lavori di ricostruzione nel villaggio beduino di Um Al Kher, nelle colline a sud di Hebron.

Dopo le varie demolizioni effettuate dall’esercito israeliano nei mesi di ottobre e novembre nel villaggio beduino di Um Al Kher, gli abitanti palestinesi stanno ora costruendo nuove strutture con l’aiuto di attivisti israeliani e il supporto di varie ONG internazionali.

L’Unione Europea, attraverso il programma “Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection”, ha fornito al villaggio tre case di lamiera. Palestinesi e attivisti israeliani hanno ricostruito il taboon, forno tradizionale, per la terza volta dopo che era stato illegalmente nuovamente demolito di recente; hanno apportato migliorie ad un vecchio pozzo che ora fornisce acqua al villaggio tramite tubature; costruito una strada sterrata che porta al suddetto pozzo.

Il 19 novembre la DCO (District Cordination Office, una branca dell’esercito israeliano che si occupa dell’amministrazione civile nei territori occupati palestinesi) ha emesso ordini di demolizione per le tre case di lamiera. Nonostante questo, gli abitanti palestinesi di Um Al Kher sono fermamente impegnati nella resistenza popolare nonviolenta quale via per affermare il proprio diritto a vivere sulla propria terra.