There are some pleasant surprises in store for us today. We have already set off on foot by the main path to Umm al-Ara’is, a good half-hour’s walk through the desert; shepherds wave hello from the slopes above us. It is 8:30 and still not too hot. I’m happy to be walking through this landscape once again—I was away for a month because of minor surgery—but within a few minutes Sa’id arrives in his clunky, white, infinitely expandable van: we count seventeen children and not a few adults. They tell […]Thursday, June 27 2013 On Authors, Porta-Potties, and Other things by Amitai Ben-Abba
A blow to the ribs is the small token I received from the soldiers for coming once again to accompany people to their land in Umm al-Ara’is. This time we staged some resistance. We approached the land from three different directions. In a sub-group of five we entered from the south and met confused soldiers telling us we are not allowed to go further. We told them there is absolutely no legal justification to stop us as we kept on roaming through. They demanded our ID’s but we dismissed them […]Wednesday, April 3 2013 Israeli activists detained for filming by Mairav Zonszein In the video below (filmed by an Israeli Ta’ayush activist on Monday April 1 and subtitled quickly by yours truly) a policeman approaches Israeli activists who regularly go to the South Hebron Hills (he knows all their names already) and informs them they are being detained. For what? For filming illegal construction at an illegal outpost in the area called Avigayil on a different day. That’s right. This was not an April Fool’s joke, but the way the law is actually being enforced by Israeli authorities in the West Bank. […]
Sunday, March 24 2013 What IDF does not want you to see by Mairav Zonszein According to Guy, an Israeli Ta’ayush activist and documentarian of occupation in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank – there has been an increase in incidents over the last month in which Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been preventing him and other Israelis from filming what goes on. In this 7-minute video, edited together from footage taken just over the last few weeks, between February 23 and March 9, IDF soldiers – as well as high-ranking officers – are seen blocking camera lenses over and over […]
Saturday, July 17 2010 Water Collection in Tawamin for the Residents of Bir El-Eid, Accompanying Shepherds in Mufkarah and the Demonstration in Hebron
On Saturday we went to the cisterns in Tawamin to meet with the residents of Bir El-Eid and to continue collecting water and transporting them to cisterns the access to which is less disturbed by the settlers, a task in which we have been engaged for a month (you can read more about this in earlier posts). As expected, a few minutes after we arrived at the cisterns a few military and police jeeps arrived. Unexpectedly, this time the soldiers did not come in order to prevent the activity and to […]Saturday, May 29 2010 Accompanying Shepherds in Mufkarah and Abu Kabitah, Harvest in Susya and a Demonstration in Hebron
As usual two small groups went to accompany shepherds in the area of Mufkarah and on the lands of Abu Katibah, places which often suffer harassment by settlers and the security forces. In both places the grazing took place without incident. Another group of activists arrived at Susya in order to help with the harvest. We began harvesting a small field near the Susya settlement. Just as we were finishing the harvest in that field, the officer of the unit stationed in that area appeared. The officer asserted that because […]Saturday, April 24 2010 Escorting shepherds, Planting and Demonstrating in Hebron Escorting shepherds in the area of Mufakkara, and on the land of Abu Kbita in the area of Yatir was successful. Other groups of activists escorted farmers in a number of places around Susya. We returned to plant on the land of the Moor family, where settlers plowed a while ago, and where settlers had uprooted the trees we planted last week (April 17). Three other groups assisted in the harvest work near the Susya junction, where there are neighboring settlements and the road that serves the “Mitzpeh Yair” outpost. […]
Saturday, March 13 2010 Shepherds Accompment in Umm Zeitune and Mufakkara
For many weeks the army had prevented grazing in the area of Umm Zeitune, each time with different and changing excuses, always using the “closed military zone order”, whose legality is doubtful and whose malice is obvious. This time we arrived in a large group determined to ensure grazing in this area where it had always been allowed, with no disturbance, over all the previous years. Shortly after we arrived and met the shepherds and their flocks, so did the army. The soldiers tried to take no notice of our […]
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