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Israeli army not upholding High Court decision in Susiya

Wednesday afternoon the shepherds from the Qawawis area were out grazing their sheep. Around 4 o’clock two shots were fired from the Susiya settlement at the Palestinians. Luckily nobody was hurt. The police and army were contacted, but it took them more than half an hour to show up even though the army base is 5 minutes away. When they finally arrived, their main focus was the legality of the international’s presence, not the actual shooting incident and no investigation was made at the settlement.

There have been many settler assaults against the Palestinians in Susiya. It is next to road 317, close to settler greenhouses and in front of the Susiya settlement. The land is divided into three military zones, the upper part of the hill is classified as a Closed Military Zone , supposedly applying to all civilians, with the more flat part of the area that borders to the road is military zone A and B where only Palestinians are allowedd to enter. There is a part in between the A and B zone, which the settler Moshe Dutch stole one year ago and where he grow grapes, and now the settlers are the only ones who are allowed to enter.

The 24th of September the High Court in Jerusalem discussed the situation of this particular land. Rabbis for Human Rights had brought the case to court because of the many violent settler attacks and because the army regularly orders the Palestinians to leave the land against their own declared military zone arrangement. The High Court decided that the next following 40 days the military and the police have to prove that they do allow the Palestinians to enter their land and that they protect them against settler attacks.

Since the Jerusalem Court decision the army has ordered the Palestinians to leave the land and the settlers have harassed the Palestinian and their sheep inside the land were only Palestinians are allowed.