Evicted from their original houses in Susya , they now live in make shifts tents near the land that once belonged to them
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.
