How settlers defy Obama

At first glance, the dusty dunes of the south Hebron hills appear splendidly frozen in time. Small encampments of nomadic farmers are dotted across the landscape, sparse groves of olive and fruit trees surrounding the ramshackle tents huddled together in their midst. Flocks of sheep and goats graze on the scrubby foliage under the watchful eye of teenaged shepherds; the silence of the plains is breathtaking, the only noise an occasional cautionary bark from the villagers’ ever-vigilant guard dogs. But the glorious isolation in which the rural communities seem to dwell is an illusory facade.

A closer look at the way their camps are arranged reveals the true picture of modern life on the land they’ve tended for generations. Soldiers stand guard in pairs at strategic spots on the hillside, enforcing the no-entry zones surrounding the rash of settlements spread across the region, the mini-towns growing bigger by the month, swallowing up more and more of the Palestinians’ land in the zero-sum game eternally stacked in the settlers’ favor.

The settlement of Susiya is a case in point. Not content with building within the settlement’s perimeter, the residents have been venturing deep into the farmers’ land to lay new foundations and erect buildings that will eventually be annexed to the mothership. The immediate effect of the construction of the outposts is to force the farmers off their land, to be replaced by teams of armed guards: both settlers and soldiers taking responsibility for keeping unwanted persons at bay.

The relatively passive guarding of the outposts is by no means the worst of the situation, according to the matriarch of one farming family I spoke to; instead, the settlers routinely take a more hands-on approach to try to drive away the Palestinians from the area. “Several times a month there are incidents with the settlers,” she said, as we sat inside the cave where she and her family live, a small flock of goats penned into the back half of the gloomy structure. “A settler tried to run my eldest son over recently with his car; fortunately my son was able to jump out of the way, but he smashed into one of the goats instead, breaking its leg,” she continued, bringing out the injured animal as proof of the attack.

She laughed bitterly at the thought of the Israeli police coming to her aid, as Ehud Krinis — an Israeli volunteer from the Villages Group — explained that the odds were stacked against any Palestinian seeking help from the local constabulary. “First, the police stations are inside the settlements”, he said, “which means that the Palestinians are often denied access to them (by the guards on the front gate of the settlement). At the same time, complainants are often subject to persecution for having dared to file a report: They find themselves denied permits to work in Israel, and so on.”

Even those undeterred by such obstacles find that the law is firmly on the side of the settlers: The conviction rate for crimes perpetrated by settlers is shockingly low, despite hard evidence continually being provided by the victims and their supporters from NGOs such as B’Tselem and CPT.

The mother of the besieged family shrugged off the attacks with a weary resignation, despite the severity of the attacks on her children and animals. The tragedy of the situation is that she is not only utterly powerless to defend herself and her dependents, but also that she has now come to see the persecution as inevitable: as just another peril of life in the countryside. Just as farmers in other areas know they will lose a certain number of their animals to foxes and wolves every year, so too do the Palestinian residents of the south Hebron hills have to incorporate relentless settler abuse into the cost of their remaining in the region.

It is the fear that the farmers will one day be so crushed by the harsh treatment they receive at the hands of the settlers and the IDF that they flee the area that spurs Ehud and his colleagues on in their work with the local Palestinian families. “Our aim is to strengthen these people and stop them leaving,” he explained, as we visited families in the area with whom he works.

The Villages Group provides assistance such as wind turbines and solar panels to the farmers, none of whose homes are connected to either the Israeli or Palestinian national grids (the PA being just as reluctant to assist the families as the Israeli authorities, despite ostensibly owing a duty of care to all Palestinians in the occupied territories).

By providing such rudimentary assistance, the Villages Group makes a significant difference to the families they assist. Wind turbines allow the farmers to run fridges to keep their food fresh, as well as run cheese-curdling machines in place of having to spend inordinate amounts of time processing the milk by hand. This way, they are in a position to mass-produce their wares to sell at market, giving a much-needed boost to their income, with which to buy clothes and educational material for their children, some of whom are now in a position to progress to university once their high school career is complete.

Yet, for all the help given by the Villages Group, as well as other NGOs working in the region, the overall picture is growing bleaker by the year, thanks to the continued expansion of the settlements.

Recent pressure applied to Israel at diplomatic level has made little difference on the ground, according to Ehud. The settlers’ determination to go on with their land grabs is palpable — both in terms of the actions they take via new construction, as well as the fierce fighting talk emanating from settler leaders in the wake of Obama’s anti-settlement pronouncements.

Plastered at bus stops and hitchhiking posts throughout the area are posters showing Obama clad in a Arab headdress, beneath bold lettering proclaiming him a “Jew-hater”. The irony of the situation is laughable: settlers accusing others of racism while dealing with their non-Jewish peers with all the “love thy neighbor” righteousness of Belfast fascists hounding Romanian immigrants out of town. The difference, sadly, is that at least in Northern Ireland the authorities come down on the side of good rather than providing tacit support for evil to forever rule the roost.