A section along the southern border of the Hebron district southeast
of the town of Yatta is designated by Israel as a military area. On 7
April, the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid al Adhaa, the
Israeli army issued orders to about 100 families living there to
evacuate the area by 12 April, Easter Sunday. The following
Saturday, 18 April, CPT team members went with Abdel Hadi Hantash of
the Land Defense Committee to visit the area and speak with some of
the families.

Our van turned off the road that runs past two Israeli settlements,
neither with many visible signs of habitation, onto a barely
discernible mountain path. The people who live in this rugged,
inaccessible terrain grow wheat where possible and raise goats and
sheep. They have lived on these hills for generations and have land
documents from the Ottoman period to prove it.

We saw several military vehicles scattered over the top of a hill
adjacent to one of the extended families we visited and were told that
they have been used in the past for aerial target practice. In the
opposite direction on another hill is a large house built six months
ago by a lone settler named Dov. While we were there, Dov released
his three horses among the Palestinians' wheat fields where they could
graze on the young crops. Most of the people we talked to had
experienced unpleasant encounters with Dov, including one man Dov
drove his jeep into, beat and left lying unconscious alongside the
rocky lane.

The men told us that soldiers come from the army base just visible in
the distance every week or so to order them to leave. In the process,
soldiers have driven their jeeps into the goat herds, killing several,
and have hit, shoved and kicked the men. They have also confiscated
communally-owned tractors. Eleven months ago, the army took the
furniture, cooking equipment, and everything else that could be loaded
onto trucks from some of the families. The military order, which they
showed us, stated the reason in Hebrew and Arabic as being that the
seized goods had been used to violate military orders. Precisely
which orders had been violated by the household goods was not made
clear. The families were then given a paper to sign, whereby their
furniture would be returned in exchange for forfeiting their right to
the land. They refused. However, in order to replace the most
essential items, they have had to sell some of their goats. If that
continues, as they explained, they will lose their livelihoods and end
up dispossessing themselves.