"Because God promised us this land!" It's the answer that an Italian human rights observer has been listening to.

   The Southern hills in Hebron city is an untold story, it's a story of fighting over the land, a story of ethnic conflict, a story of dominant ethnic group creeping rapidly to snap as many geographical distances on the expense of the other group as possible.

The other vulnerable group is seen as intruders have no legitimacy according to the charter of the dominant Jewish group. Therefore, this existing equation in the south of Hebron sustains the unresolved conflict. 

An interior overlooking the Etwani village

In two consecutive field tours, I took part in organized by a human rights organization,  some new  facts appeared on the roundtable to be highlighted, as usual in an attempt to relieve the pain of the Palestinian residents who are affected by the confrontation of the struggle of existence, they reside in unrecognized villages in what so-called area (C). This area according to Oslo Accords is under Israeli military rule and its residents undergo military jurisdiction in terms of residency and other civil matters.

These tours were organized cooperatively with an Italian group who resides there all the time to watch out what's going on at the friction point with the settlers path, it's a shared unpaved bypass where school children and other residents of Etwani village and settlers pass through to reach their destinations in the adjacent area of the illegal outpost.

So, the job of those Italian activists is to make sure that the Israeli military vehicle comes down the road on time when the school children get out of their classes.

We arrived on the scene to find out that some school children are waiting under an old growth tree with the Italian observers for the vehicle to come down the road and escort them while they head up to reach their homes. The scene is indeed, was very charming, the wind was fresh and some swarms of birds were hovering over us and chirping. It left me pondering its beauty and wondering, "how much nice this nature, but the human beings who live in aren't." 

One of the Italian observer watching out the operation and waiting with the school pupils for the military vehicle. On the left side, there is  an illegal outpost 

A female headscarfed pupil answered my question when she saw the vehicle is heading down to the friction point, "does the Israeli army make you scared when escorting you?" saying, "Everything makes us afraid here including the army, it, however, not scary as much as settlers, it does provide us with an unregular protection to get to our homes safely."

Our staff including an Italian reporter documenting the operation 

The military vehicle escorting the schoolchildren until they get to their houses safely. The bypass is surrounded by orchards and vineyards owned by settlers on both sides

 After the operation was done, we headed back to meeting up with some residents of the village to listen to their testimonies, we both the Italian and Jerusalem-based (RHR) human rights groups sat down on a roundtable including two Palestinian responsible men and a lady. Our lawyer asked about the story of the bypass, "What's the importance of it for Etwani's residents?" and other related questions in order to make a lawsuit at the Israeli court. After I orally translated them, the man said, "this road had been available for us before the outpost was established, it had been used by the Jordanian army, and we used to walk our cattle passing through it," and continued, "it has a big importance for the residents of our village and other surrounding villages in terms of reaching our destinations rapidly, it shortens the distance among all villages that are linked up with it. Otherwise, it takes us hours walking on the foot to reach our destinations by passing through another remote direction just to get out of the domain where the danger of settlers. Even so, this far reached direction is somewhat safe, it does guarantee safety all the time, sometimes settlers come and attack you off-guard in ambush. I, therefore, assure you that other than this bypass our daily life is totally excruciating."  

Then, the lady pardoned me saying "I would like to share my personal story if possible," my staff listened attentively to her important story, she eagerly started off narrating it aiming at having an answer to her question afterward, "my son was arrested and then indicted of approaching a prohibited zone close to the wire barbed fence of the outpost," she continued, "in the investigative room at the military detention center in Hebron, the interrogator including fearful able-bodied guards didn't allow me to talk to my son or to hire a lawyer in order to back him up in that dreadful moments. This story proved to me how much ignorant we are regarding the Israeli legal system, how does it work with unarmed civilians under military rule? What are our ensured rights accordingly? We know nothing, it's an ambiguous issue. So, I'm wondering if you could as a lawyer enlighten us about this matter."

After my boss explained how does it work, my colleague the lawyer said, "We'll organize a tutoring day to teach you and some law students from the village about Israeli legal system."

And later, all agreed on organizing a festive event by some peace proponents for the villagers in an attempt to back them up including psychiatric sessions for treating those who are morally or physically affected by daily shocking events. 

In Etwani village with our staff

The second tour, conducted to listen to more testimonies and have some formal attorney papers undersigned by the residents to represent them at the court. In fact, since I began working for human rights organizations in 2015, I've heard about many pending lawsuits in the Israeli courts regarding grievances of Palestinians, most of these cases haven't been resolved yet. It's imaginable how the legal process at Israeli courts is procrastinative, it doesn't work fairly in most often. 

Shacks in Toba village on the hill

An Italian observer called us saying, "the Israeli army didn't come on time today to accompany the school children, but thank God they passed safely. However, we have a law student just arrived from Hebron University he lives in another village (Toba) far away from here and it's unsafe for him to pass through that road. So, let's pick him up."

On our way to the shattered village, we chatted in the car, he narrated how tough his journey to get to Yatta (a town nearby their village) and then to Hebron, "there is no transportation, sometimes I couldn't arrive punctually to the class, in addition, I'm suffering a daily anxiety because of potential attacks or chasing down by settlers, this end me up being not accomplished to my academic errands and other related stuff," as he stated.

My colleague, a lawyer, and representative for the villagers in the court

He lives on the hill, the nomadic lifestyle is remarkable though they're not Bedouins, some sparse iron sheets-built houses, barns. They get by on a little energy is generated by a single wind turbine, they have to struggle with blackouts, no constant flood of water, they sometimes extract some aquifers, but they're not allowed to dig up more wells, they try out their best to manage to live with small amount of gallons are bought from Yatta town and delivered by a cistern hooked up with tractor. The road to Toba is bumpy and unpaved, basic services are totally non-existent except the stuff they use to survive because this residential area is unrecognized. I, therefore, felt that it's a village of ghosts. 
However, I liked the picturesque and the nice overlooking around. After we dropped the law student off, we were hosted by his family in a cave is dug out of a huge stone, I have never been hosted in a cave in my life. I thus recalled the nice adventures that my grandmother had been telling us during her experience in caves with her family long years ago specifically under the British Mandate before she passed away. 
Furthermore, I remembered the story of Robinson Crusoe who got lost in a fearful island, because the place of (Toba) and the uninhabited surroundings have some insinuations to that story, I imagined that this place might have the potentiality of occurrence of such fictitious adventures of quarreling with savages.

Heading down to the cave

After we were welcomed, I introduced our organization and its mission in the south of Hebron and the Palestinian Territories in general, then the householder began narrating his unbearable story including the importance of that shared bypass to his village where access is very smooth. Otherwise, he needs to spend much time passing through another risky way, "in 2003, I had to drive a donkey to take my pregnant wife to give birth in a far away hospital," and he continued grievously, "imagine your wife is suffering the pain of childbirth, she was in dire need of intensive care and a gently ride like by an ambulance, but everything was inaccessible to my place without that bypass. Eventually, thank god we could manage her arrival on the back of the donkey which was a very tough ride for her." 

Toba is surrounding by an uninhabited area, the residents face up the danger of displacement, there are a lot of people who may pose a heavy pressure on the Israeli legal decision on it

We understood how much hardships are they bearing on their shoulders those residents, then I asked him "how many children does he have?" he said, "I raised in this cave 9 children." It's another hard fact to be added here is, how could he raise all these children in this completely marginalized area with these impediments? I figured out that those people are struggling with social hardships as well.
Our visit finished with his signature to the legal document to be filed in the court. 
On our long way back to Jerusalem, I chatted with the Italian observer in the car, she explained her legal studies in Italy and shed some light on her experience in Etwani and other villages, "I've been listening to both Palestinian and Israeli novels, those settlers believe in one irreversible thing is "god promised us this land." So, we keep fighting for it and there is no place for the strangers and interlopers," she claimed.

I, by the way, was impressed of how some of those Italian observers speaking Arabic using the dialect of aborigines because some have spent more than a year in between Etwani and other villages' residents monitoring what's going on there.
Unequivocally, our conflict in the Holy Land is one of the most complicated in the world over, a dominant group won't give in seizing more land and the affected Palestinians will keep tasting the bitterness of these systematic expropriation policies in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Hence, I hope that this situation will find its sustainable solution sooner or later during the current ongoing negotiations under the oversight of Trump's administration. If there would be seriousness this time.