Ongoing battle over demolishing Palestinian homes in Susya
The Land of Israel Caucus, a hardline group that wants to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, has launched a PR campaign aimed at convincing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to demolish Palestinian homes in the Palestinian village of Susya in the West Bank.
Susya, located in the southern Hebron hills in Israel, is in Area C, which constitutes approximately 60% of the West Bank and is under full Israeli political and military control. Israeli hardliners want Israel to demolish the Palestinian homes in Susya, and to expand Jewish construction there. The 350 Palestinians in Susya live in tents and shacks, funded by international bodies like the European Union, who condemn the demolition plans, as they await the government’s decision.
All of the structures in Susya were built illegally, and all have Israeli demolition orders outstanding against them. Palestinians say the Israeli government makes it impossible for them to get permits; members of the Land of Israel Caucus say Palestinians are flouting Israeli law and trying to take over more land. They say the Palestinians actually live in the nearby village of Yatta, not in Susya.
In 2015, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered that almost half of the homes be demolished. That decision has been postponed several times, and the Court has now given the Israeli government two months to decide how to proceed with Susya. The government is stalling, seemingly, because of international pressure.
“A big part of this tour is to put pressure on the prime minister not to go along with the illegitimate pressure from the international community and to uphold the law in accordance with the Supreme Court,” Bezalel Smotrich, co-chair of the caucus and founder of Regavim, a right-wing NGO dedicated to ensuring “responsible, legal, accountable, and environmentally-friendly use of Israel’s national lands said.
“The international community is putting a lot of pressure on the Prime Minister to ignore the decisions of the Supreme Court,” Meir Deutsch, policy director at Regavim told The Media Line.
The tour, which was organized by the caucus and was the first tour to Susya, brought two busloads of Likud activists from Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan to Susya and other Israeli communities in the West Bank like Gush Etzion and Hebron, in an effort to garner more support for their cause.
According to Arik Ben Shimon, the spokesman for the Land of Israel Caucus, the organization has arranged tours like these in the past to places like the Galilee and the Negev, often inviting both journalists and members of various Likud chapters.
The day began as journalists, along with the director of the Zionist Organization of America, entered into a bullet-proof van at the symbolic Menorah at the Knesset. As the van drove into the West Bank, the group read a traveler’s prayer to ensure safety on their visit. Most carried guns on the trip. While on the tour of Susya, there was a Palestinian protest, where residents of Susya and other activists waved Palestinian flags and chanted alongside their Israeli counterparts, who rushed to the scene with Israeli flags and songs of their own.
Photo: Katie Beiter/The Media Line
There are actually three Susya’s – one is the archaeological site, one is the Jewish settlement of founded in 1983, and the third is the Palestinian village of Susya. Palestinians have claimed the land of Susya for hundreds of years, saying they have lived in cave communities there.
According to Sarit Michaeli, spokesperson for B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) demolished the Palestinian village of Khirbet Susya in 1986 to build an Israeli archaeological site.
The Palestinian residents of Susya were forced to move about 500 yards from their original village to an unoccupied area.
Abed Nawjaa, a 29 year-old Palestinian man, who was born in old Susya, says that his family has lived on this land for at least 600 years.
“This is our land,” Nawjaa told The Media Line. “We have Turkish papers from the Ottoman times and we have everything to prove we own the land.”
Susya has become something of a symbol to both the orthodox Knesset Members (MK’s) and the Palestinians. To the MK’s, Susya is an example of the EU, and other international bodies, interfering with Israel and funding what they call “illegal encampments.” These politicians, and the activists, believe that the entire West Bank is a Jewish heritage site.
“We have all the rights from the Bible, from God, and from history to have this land,” Likud activist and tour participant Sara Rivai told The Media Line. “I hope the illegal Arab homes will be destroyed. We need to be strong against this crime they are doing.”
To the Palestinians, Susya is a symbol of the overall struggle against Israeli control and the mistreatment of Israeli authorities, like the Civil Administration, towards Palestinians.
“It’s not up to the Knesset to decide what will be the fate of Palestine, it’s up to the Palestinian people who have rights that they are granted under international law,” Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization told The Media Line.
According to Michaeli of Btselem, many on both sides see Susya as a test case.
“People fear the domino effect – that if Israel demolishes Susya, which has achieved fame, then where does the fate of other Palestinian villages in the occupied territories rest?” Michaeli said.
It is also being seen as a test for Israel’s new Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a one-time rival to Netanyahu. The visitors to the archaeological site say they simply want the government to enforce the court decision.
“Legally, there is already a Supreme Court decision that says (these structures) are illegal and must be removed. So, it is very simple from the legal point of view,” Yoav Kish, co-chair of the Land of Israel Caucus and one of the trips organizers said. “The problem is that the government is not implementing the legal decisions.”
According to Kish, there are roughly 1,000 Israeli families in Susya and there are about 30 or 40 Palestinian families there. Many of those families are from Yatta, a Palestinian city nearby Susya. Kish said these families have homes in Yatta but they are just trying to make a point by “squatting” in Susya.
The Parliamentary Land of Israel Caucus, along with Regavim, is pressuring Netanyahu and the Israeli government to demolish what they are calling the “illegal Arab encampment” in Susya. The residents of Susya are deprived of building permits and basic rights such as electricity and running water, and often live in tents in shantytowns.
“The problem, of course, is that Israeli authorities don’t want to see Palestinian communities in between the settlement and the archaeological site and, therefore, have worked tirelessly to try and get the residents to leave the community. Palestinians have a legal right to this land,”Michaeli said.
Katie Beiter is a student journalist with The Media Line