Return to Zanuta
JVL Introduction
Attention has rightly been focussed on Israeli army invasion and destruction of refugee camps in the northern West Bank. However, we must not lose sight of the continued struggle in the South Hebron Hills against some of the most violent settlers.
The residents of village of Zanuta won a rare legal victory and gained permission to return to their homes. Hamdan Ballal Al-Huraini documents their legal campaign and recounts accompanying the villagers. He found that although they were delighted to return they found their homes and property had been vandalised by settlers and the harassment continued.
MC
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine on Mon 9 Sep 2024. Read the original here.
After expulsion by settlers, Palestinians embrace precarious return to Zanuta
As residents trickled back into the destroyed West Bank village following a court ruling, fear of further attacks was outweighed by the joy of being home.
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very moving
I visited Zanuta several times while I spent 3 months in the South Hebron Hills in 2012; even then they were one of the most vulnerable communities but many in that region and, indeed, across the West Bank are extremely vulnerable. It is great they are back but have lost a year of farming and herding and remain under threat. In the area I saw outposts (illegal even under Israeli law) with paved roads leading to them, with water and electricity while the longstanding Palestinian hamlets had none of that. Perhaps one of the worst things I saw were that electric cables to settlements, running alongside the fences or rocks by Palestinians’ tents and caves just below the wire of an eruv; meanwhile Palestinians are not allowed solar panels or wind turbines and even their cisterns can be destroyed if they dare to repair them. On one occasion I saw settlers – safely protected from the “no carry” rules for Shabbat by that Eruv – threw stones on Shabbat at the Palestinians. Talk about the letter of Jewish law rather than the spirit! https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/700456/jewish/What-Is-an-Eruv