OccupationalHazard.org 06.08.10

Accuracy - 06/08/10

What Susya’s People Say

Stefan Krieger and Veronika Cohen - Occupational Hazard

This article is written in response to "What Susya's Stones Say," an article in the New York Jewish Week published on May 12, 2010. The authors submitted this piece for publication to Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher of Jewish Week but received no response.
Reading Sarah Bronson’s travel column on the West Bank community of Susya, "What Susya’s Stones Say" (May 12, 2010), we were reminded of Yehuda Amichai’s poem "Tourists," in which a Jerusalem tour guide treats a street vendor as a landmark for pointing out an arch from the Roman era. Like the tour guide in Amichai’s poem, Bronson focuses on ancient stones while ignoring the real people who now live and work in the area. Bronson’s piece says nothing of the long history of Arab settlement in Susya or the efforts of the Israeli government and settlers against Susya’s Palestinians. This omission has political consequences. The article reflects a wholesale adoption of the narrative of the area’s settlers, a narrative which requires correction.
The article notes, for example, that “a visit to Susya provides important context to the storyline that most tourists learn of Israel’s history.” It disregards, however, the actual context of present-day Susya. The area has seen a campaign against the indigenous Palestinian community by the Israeli government and Jewish settlers. A few years ago, the Palestinian community graciously welcomed us, along with a group of other American and Israeli Jews, to their Susya. Like the Jews described in the article who lived in the area 1500 years ago, members of Susya’s present-day Palestinian community make their homes in underground caves and use cisterns for water. They had few possessions and no electricity. We were struck by their attachment to the land and their traditional way of life, rooted in a centuries-old cycle of herding and farming on that very site.
The Palestinian community is under constant threat from the settlement that looms above it. This settlement, with modern buildings and infrastructure, is where the operators of the tours advertised in the article live. Settlers in Susya have attacked children on their way to school, beaten up old men, and have destroyed olive trees, a main source of the Palestinian families’ incomes. They have appropriated Palestinian land and possessions. In 2001, in the middle of the night, settlers joined the IDF in destroying Palestinian families’ caves and the community’s cistern and evicted them from their land. The Israeli Supreme Court allowed the Palestinians to return and enjoined any further demolitions but the Civil Administration refused to issue any building permits for reconstruction of homes. Indeed, while the Civil Administration has freely given permits to settlers, it has refused to issue any permits to Palestinians in the area since 1967.
Bronson’s piece not only ignores recent history but obscures Susya’s past. The article asserts that “[t]here is no evidence that anyone but Jews ever lived in Susya.” This is not a statement of fact but rather a backward projection of the settlers’ vision for the future. Palestinians have resided in Susya for centuries. They hold title to the land dating back to the Ottoman period.
There is no shortage of available information about the drive to uproot the Palestinian population from Susya. Hebrew University Professor David Shulman, for instance, has written thoughtfully about settler expansion in Susya and other areas of the South Hebron Hills. Shulman notes, “Nothing but malice drives this campaign to uproot the few thousand cave dwellers with their babies and lambs. They have hurt nobody. They were never a security threat.” And organizations like Rabbis for Human Rights have drawn attention to the mistreatment of Palestinians in Susya, recently chronicling the settlers’ repeated release of their goats to destroy Palestinian crops. Bronson, however, has chosen wholeheartedly to support the settlers’ local tourist industry and to ignore the plight of the Palestinian residents of the area.
Amichai concludes the poem by saying that “redemption will come” only when the guide tells the tourists:

You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family.

Our hope is that a time will come when mainstream Jewish newspapers recognize that the voices of ancient stones are not the whole story. We hope for a time when American Jews hear the voices of Susya’s current residents, herders who only seek to make a living on their small plots of land. Then maybe a little redemption will come.
Dr. Veronika Cohen is Head of the Department of Music Education at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Professor Stefan Krieger teaches at Hofstra University School of Law. Both Dr. Cohen and Professor Krieger are editors of occupationalhazard.org, a ten-year old website providing information and analysis about the Occupation.

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What Susya’s People Say
Stefan Krieger and Veronika Cohen - Occupational Hazard





This article is written in response to "What Susya's Stones Say," an article in the New York Jewish Week published on May 12, 2010. The authors submitted this piece for publication to Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher of Jewish Week but received no response. Reading Sarah Bronson’s travel column on the West Bank community of Susya, "What Susya’s Stones Say" (May 12, 2010), we were reminded of Yehuda Amichai’s poem "Tourists," in which a Jerusalem tour guide treats a street vendor as a landmark for pointing out an arch from the Roman era. Like the tour guide in Amichai’s poem, Bronson focuses on ancient stones while ignoring the real people who now live and work in the area. Bronson’s piece says nothing of the long history of Arab settlement in Susya or the efforts of the Israeli government and settlers against Susya’s Palestinians. This omission has political consequences. The article reflects a wholesale adoption of the narrative of the area’s settlers, a narrative which requires correction. The article notes, for example, that “a visit to Susya provides important context to the storyline that most tourists learn of Israel’s history.” It disregards, however, the actual context of present-day Susya. The area has seen a campaign against the indigenous Palestinian community by the Israeli government and Jewish settlers. A few years ago, the Palestinian community graciously welcomed us, along with a group of other American and Israeli Jews, to their Susya. Like the Jews described in the article who lived in the area 1500 years ago, members of Susya’s present-day Palestinian community make their homes in underground caves and use cisterns for water. They had few possessions and no electricity. We were struck by their attachment to the land and their traditional way of life, rooted in a centuries-old cycle of herding and farming on that very site. The Palestinian community is under constant threat from the settlement that looms above it. This settlement, with modern buildings and infrastructure, is where the operators of the tours advertised in the article live. Settlers in Susya have attacked children on their way to school, beaten up old men, and have destroyed olive trees, a main source of the Palestinian families’ incomes. They have appropriated Palestinian land and possessions. In 2001, in the middle of the night, settlers joined the IDF in destroying Palestinian families’ caves and the community’s cistern and evicted them from their land. The Israeli Supreme Court allowed the Palestinians to return and enjoined any further demolitions but the Civil Administration refused to issue any building permits for reconstruction of homes. Indeed, while the Civil Administration has freely given permits to settlers, it has refused to issue any permits to Palestinians in the area since 1967. Bronson’s piece not only ignores recent history but obscures Susya’s past. The article asserts that “[t]here is no evidence that anyone but Jews ever lived in Susya.” This is not a statement of fact but rather a backward projection of the settlers’ vision for the future. Palestinians have resided in Susya for centuries. They hold title to the land dating back to the Ottoman period. There is no shortage of available information about the drive to uproot the Palestinian population from Susya. Hebrew University Professor David Shulman, for instance, has written thoughtfully about settler expansion in Susya and other areas of the South Hebron Hills. Shulman notes, “Nothing but malice drives this campaign to uproot the few thousand cave dwellers with their babies and lambs. They have hurt nobody. They were never a security threat.” And organizations like Rabbis for Human Rights have drawn attention to the mistreatment of Palestinians in Susya, recently chronicling the settlers’ repeated release of their goats to destroy Palestinian crops. Bronson, however, has chosen wholeheartedly to support the settlers’ local tourist industry and to ignore the plight of the Palestinian residents of the area. Amichai concludes the poem by saying that “redemption will come” only when the guide tells the tourists: You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it, left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family. Our hope is that a time will come when mainstream Jewish newspapers recognize that the voices of ancient stones are not the whole story. We hope for a time when American Jews hear the voices of Susya’s current residents, herders who only seek to make a living on their small plots of land. Then maybe a little redemption will come. Dr. Veronika Cohen is Head of the Department of Music Education at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Professor Stefan Krieger teaches at Hofstra University School of Law. Both Dr. Cohen and Professor Krieger are editors of occupationalhazard.org, a ten-year old website providing information and analysis about the Occupation.
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