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petizione per cercare di salvare il villaggio palestinese di Susiya

con preghiera di diffusione!
Cristina Graziani

Susya Petition is now online: Please sign and distribute:
 
 
 
Help save the Palestinian inhabitants of Susya from eviction!
On June 6, 2007, a final Israeli Supreme Court hearing was held on the appeal of the Palestinian residents of Susya, in the southern edge of the West Bank . The deliberations – carried out since 2001 (appeal # 7530/01) – was against the destruction of the Palestinians' homes.
The Court has basically accepted the state's argument, that the residents are squatters, even though they are the legal owners of the land. This is because they have built their homes (after being evicted once before) without permit, and therefore the homes must be destroyed. Since Palestinian Susya is in "area C", the authority to issue permits rests with the settler-run Civil Administration bureau, situated in a settlement in the northern part of the West Bank .
There is no end to the cynicism of the settlers, the IDF, the Civil Administration, and even the Court towards Susya Palestinians. It is well known, that the above-mentioned bureau does not give permits to Palestinians. Some residents have submitted permits in the past – only to be turned down repeatedly.
At bottom line, even though the State admits the land is private Palestinian land, it prevents Palestinians from living on it. At the same time, settlement outposts in the same region are expanding, many of them also built on private Palestinian land.
Will the Minister of Security and the Israeli government now approve the eviction of 13 Palestinian families attempting to continue to live on their land and tilling their fields – or will it cater to the settlers' expansionism and explicit wishes to "clear" the area of its original residents?
It is also up to you. Please act.
 
 
 
 
Background Information
In the southern Hebron hills, in an area called Masafer Yatta, a small population of several thousand Palestinian farmers and shepherds live in shanty-like villages and in caves and tents. This is a very traditional population subsisting on non-mechanized agriculture and herding. 
These people, often referred to as 'cave-dwellers,' have lived in the area continuously since the early nineteenth century (documentation dates back to 1830, and aerial photographs from decades ago confirm their presence here). Anyone who meets the inhabitants of Masafer Yatta can see how deeply rooted they are in the land. They are familiar with every well and tree, and they know who owns each plot of land down to the last clod of earth.
It is thus difficult to accept the unrelenting attempts by Jewish settlers, aided and abetted by the Civil Administration, an arm of the Israeli Defence Forces [IDF], to evict the Palestinian cave-dwellers from their homes and deprive them of their meagre livelihood. It is even more difficult to come to terms with the possibility that the Supreme Court of Justice might sanction this expulsion.
The first Jewish settlements in the area of South Mount Hebron came into being in the early eighties: Carmel and Ma'on in 1981, Susya and Beit Yatir in 1983. The local Palestinian inhabitants were initially employed in construction and other jobs in these settlements. Over the years, however, relat ions deteriorated. What happened in Susya exemplifies the process in the region as a whole.
The Palestinian inhabitants of Khirbet Susya, who now live in huts and tents on the edge of the Jewish settlement of Susya originally lived in Susya Al-Qadime, a village situated in what is today an archaeological site containing an ancient synagogue. In the mid 1980's, the site was declared a "National Park," and the Palestinian inhabitants were expelled by the IDF. Powerless to resist the expulsion, the Palestinians continued to cultivate their private plots and settled some 500 meters from the Israeli settlement of Susya in what is known today as Rujum. This was too close for the comfort of the Jewish settlers, who instigated a second expulsion. One night, the Palestinians were herded into trucks and dumped some 15 kilometres to the north, in the area of the Zif Crossroads, where they stayed for some time. Eventually, unable to return to their real homes, the families built small huts and put up tents on a hilltop close to their lands on the periphery of the Susya settlement.
Friction between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinians escalated as settlers, together with the army, harassed and terrorized the cave-dwellers. This concerted, ongoing persecution reflects a policy clearly aimed at cleansing the area of its Palestinian population. The mid-1990's saw the spread of Jewish farms and illegal "outposts" in the region, all established in areas previously seized by the army.   
Thus, under the protection of the IDF, Jewish settlers managed to grab more and more land belonging to the Palestinian inhabitants of Susya. Increasingly violent in their actions, settlers stopped Palestinian farmers from cultivating their plots of land. Palestinian farmers were regularly attacked and beaten. In the course of this struggle over land, three Palestinian inhabitants and one Jewish settler lost their lives.
Another eviction took place in July 2001 following the murder of a Jewish settler, Ya'ir Har- Sinai. The pretext for the eviction was the claim that the Palestinians had trespassed the boundaries of the Jewish settlement of Susya. Labelled as trespassers in their own historic lands, these Palestinian families were evicted without notice from the area of Susya – Gawawis, between the Yatta-Samu'a road and the Green Line. Many were beaten and/or arrested, caves were demolished, wells blocked up, fields destroyed and livestock killed. The evicted families also reported that civilians accompanied the security forces during the expulsion. It is possible that these civilians were settlers familiar with the area.
Still undeterred, some of the Susya families returned to their lands. Since 1999 Israeli activists (particular from the Ta'ayush movement) have joined their struggle. With the help of the attorney Shlomo Lecker, they obtained a Supreme Court interim injunction instructing the army to allow the inhabitants to return to their homes. The Court pronounced the repeated expulsions illegal. Not all of the expelled families returned, however, and some of those who did were later evicted yet again, for the fourth time.
With the support of the army, Jewish settlers have perfected the art of 'bypassing' the Supreme Court. Large areas of land have been declared 'out of bounds' for Palestinians, ostensibly on security grounds. Privately owned land that lies fallow for a number of years, uncultivated by its rightful owner, can be deemed 'Survey Land' – one step removed from the category of 'Abandoned Land'. After a decent interval, the State may claim such land for public use. In fact, quite a few of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank were built on such alleged 'Survey Lands,' as has been amply documented in the Peace Now Report of December 2006. In other words, land closure by the army under the pretext of security concerns serves the real estate interests of the Israeli settlers.
By cultivating such Special Security Areas [SSA] protected by the army, the settlers are in fact staking their claim to the seized lands. The rightful owners are now caught in a sort of 'Catch 22': if they "trespass" on their own fields, they stand a real chance of being shot. The army's orders are to open fire on any Palestinian who enters the SSA, and at night the order is to 'shoot to kill'. Since the Jewish settlers are armed to the teeth, the rightful Palestinian owners can only sit and watch from afar as settlers cultivate their fields. If this goes on long enough, the Palestinians are deemed to have relinquished their claim on the area
.The Jewish settlement of Susya is built on so-called State Land. In 2001 the army established a Special Security Area around the settlement designed, of course, to keep out the local Palestinian inhabitants. The size of the forbidden area far exceeds that of the settlement proper. De facto, it increases the area of the settlement by several orders of magnitude. It extends entirely over private lands owned by local Palestinian families. The Nawaja, Ar-Reini and Adara families have lost well over 50% of their land. The Khalis and Shamusta families have lost all their lands.
The outrageous treatment of the local Palestinian inhabitants is not limited to the fencing off of SSA's.  Recent years have seen countless violent incidents perpetrated by armed settlers. These include the destruction of fields, the uprooting of trees, the poisoning of wells and fodder, the systematic molestation of shepherds and children on their way to school, even assaults on families at home in the dead of the night. Ta'ayush activists and international volunteers have had to evacuate the injured to hospitals on a number of occasions.
It goes almost without saying that the Israeli Police has shown utter impotence when called upon to enforce the law against the settlers of Susya and Havat Maon (an outpost of Susya). The few arrests, almost never leading to trial, which the police did carry out have not deterred the settlers, whose aim remains to "encourage" the Palestinian inhabitants of Susya and other hamlets in the region to abandon their lands. And yet the Palestinian inhabitants of Susya continue to cling to their land and homes.
The threat of eviction hangs over their heads. Susya is a test case for the whole region of the south Hebron hills. The fate of countless homes hangs in the balance. Please act.
For further information and support in the Susya struggle:
 
 
 
 
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