עברית

An Urgent Request

Friends and Colleagues

We ask your help in preventing an emerging human and cultural tragedy in the south Hebron hills on the West Bank in territory occupied by Israel.

This area is inhabited by a small Palestinian population of approximately 2,000 pastoralist herders and farmers living in caves carved out of the mountainside. Their way of life is unique in Palestine, perhaps in the Middle East. They have survived by farming the rocky hillsides and tending their flocks for at least 170 years. Anthropologists have studied these cave-dwellers and a published monograph exists describing their culture. We feel that as scholars and humanists we have an obligation to do whatever we can to protect them from extinction. Hence this personal appeal to you as a member of the international scholarly community.

Today, the homes, fields, and way of life of the south Hebron cave-dwellers are under existential threat. Israeli settlers have established a string of settlements and illegal outposts in this area and seek to annex the land in the immediately foreseeable future. The Jewish settlers of Susya, Maon, Yatir, and other places in the Hebron hills are among the most militant and violent in the occupied territories, and they have turned the lives of the Palestinian cave-dwellers into a nightmare.

With support from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Civil Administration, the settlers have systematically destroyed nearly 80% of the Palestinian's cave-homes, in some cases going so far as to poison their wells. In most cases, even simple agricultural work, such as sowing the fields or harvesting the crops, has become impossible; settlers and soldiers terrorize the Palestinian families and chase them at gunpoint from the fields. Indeed, several of the cave-dwellers have even been shot by these militants. In most cases, the IDF and Civil Administration have turned a blind eye to these crimes.

Recently the cave-dwellers were informed that the Israeli government intends to permanently expel them from their villages and seize their lands. The threat is real, credible, and immediate.

We, a coalition of organizations in the Israeli peace movement, are trying to prevent this from happening. A legal battle in the Israeli courts has temporarily granted these people the right to remain on their land. However, there are now indications that the Israeli High Court of Justice will soon issue a decision that allows the IDF to evict the Palestinians and seize their land.

We have joined together to help these people preserve their homes, their culture, and their human dignity.

We need your help. We feel now that only massive international pressure will be able to stop these heinous crimes. We ask you to help by signing this petition, and forwarding it to colleagues and friends. We will ensure that it is brought to the attention of the Israeli authorities.

Please help us protect these innocent families from falling victim to the conflict in the Middle East.

In our experience as Israeli activists, serious petitions, especially if signed by prominent scholars, intellectuals, and activists, can be an effective tool in cases of this nature.

If you'd like to sign, please send an e-mail to hebroncaves@hotmail.com with your name, title, and affiliation. Your name, title, and affiliation will be added to The Petition. For further information and visual material from the region, please see below.

We would be very grateful if you would pass this message on to colleagues and friends. The matter is, as you can see, very urgent.

With thanks,

Taayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership), Gush Shalom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Committee against House Demolitions, Peace Now

The Petition

We, the undersigned, call upon the Government of Israel and all its institutions to refrain from any actions harmful to the Palestinian residents of the south Hebron hills. In particular, we strongly protest any attempt to expel these people from the traditional homes and lands. We call upon the Israeli authorities to protect the south Hebron residents and their
property, to take all steps necessary to enable them to continue to work their fields and tend their flocks, and to put an immediate end to the ongoing harrassment of these innocent people by Israeli settlers in the area.

 

Some more information about the area:

Settlers out of control in Susya

A general map of the area