The South Hebron Hills after October 7

“The worst it’s ever been”

It’s been a month since October 7, when Hamas fighters killed 1,400 Israelis and captured more than 200 hostages. It’s also been a month of Israel's retaliation: air raids and ground operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed almost 10,000 Palestinians, destroyed infrastructure, and limited access to basic necessities. For the past month, Palestinians in the West Bank have also faced increased violence from settler-soldier militias. In this episode, we hear from the villages of Susiya and Umm al-Khair, where Israeli settlers have escalated their efforts to make Palestinians' lives unlivable.

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Masafer Yatta & THE SOUTH HEBRON HILLS

Escalation in the South Hebron Hills: Ali Awad

Two weeks ago, the army informed Palestinian officials that they would soon begin carrying out the forced transfer of more than a thousand people in Masafer Yatta. In the latest episode of Unsettled, hear from activist & writer Ali Awad about conditions on the ground.

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Escalation in the South Hebron Hills: Musa Abdullah Ali Awad

Musa Abdullah Ali Awad lives in the village of Isfey al-Fauqa. At the beginning of January, the army informed Palestinian officials that they would soon begin carrying out the forced transfer of more than a thousand people from eight villages. One of those eight villages is Isfey – where Musa lives.

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Escalation in the South Hebron Hills: Awdah Hathaleen

Awdah Hathaleen lives in the village of Umm al-Kheir, in the South Hebron Hills. At the start of 2023, the Israeli military announced plans to forcibly people from eight villages. Even though Umm al-Khair is not one of those eight, Awdah says life has still become much more difficult for his family and community in the past year.

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More from Ali and other activists about Masafer Yatta:

“Playgrounds for the military”

At the beginning of May, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an opinion that could lead to one of the largest population transfers in recent history. After a decades-long legal battle, the court gave the Israeli military a green light to evacuate the residents of eight villages in Masafer Yatta — Palestinians who have lived for generations on land the state now claims as a “military firing zone.”

In this episode, we hear again from activist Ali Awad to get his reaction to the court’s new ruling.

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The Campaign to Save Masafer Yatta

For more than 20 years, Israel has been trying to expel the residents of 12 Palestinian villages in a part of the West Bank called Masafer Yatta. In this episode, we hear from Ali Awad and Maya Rosen about the decades-long legal battle and what’s at stake.

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The Birthday Party

Three years ago, Unsettled Producer Max Freedman spent nine days in the West Bank with a group of 44 diaspora Jews: college students and seniors; veteran organizers and military veterans; academics and rabbis and nonprofit workers.

They were there with an organization called the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, or CJNV. Once or twice a year, CJNV does this: they bring Jews from around the world to the West Bank to practice co-resistance with Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills. The South Hebron Hills are in Area C, where Israel has total civil and military control; where settlers claim more Palestinian land every day; and where Palestinians live under constant threat of violence, demolitions, and displacement.

But as these threats have escalated, so has the resistance: and that includes a growing movement of Palestinians and Jews working together to oppose and obstruct the occupation. “The Birthday Party,” a new mini-series from Unsettled, shares some of the stories Max heard in the South Hebron Hills.

Episode 1: Tariq

In the first episode of “The Birthday Party,” get to know Tariq, a Palestinian teacher from Umm al-Khair.

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Episode 2: Bob

In the second episode of “The Birthday Party,” get to know Bob, a 71-year-old Jewish veteran.

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Episode 3: Lilly

In the third episode of “The Birthday Party,” meet Lilly — a young activist from North London who has been to the West Bank many times before — just never with other Jews.

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Episode 4: The Spring

In the fourth episode of “The Birthday Party,” two hundred Palestinians and Jews attempt to reclaim a fresh water spring that had been the main source of water for several Palestinian villages — until Israeli settlers claimed the spring as their own.

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CREDITS + THANKS

“The Birthday Party” was reported by Max Freedman, and produced by Max Freedman, Emily Bell, and Ilana Levinson, with help from Asaf Calderon.

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to everyone at the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. This mini-series is dedicated to two men who have since passed away: Tom Marver and Hajj Suleiman al Hathaleen. May their memories be for a blessing.

More Unsettled episodes on the South Hebron Hills:

The Story of Sumud

In the very first episode of Unsettled, we interviewed three American Jewish activists who traveled to the South Hebron Hills to help build the Sumud Freedom Camp as part of a coalition of Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews from the diaspora.

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Samiha Hureini: Youth of Sumud

In this episode, producer Max Freedman speaks with Samiha Hureini, a university student from the village of a-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills. She is one of the founders of Youth of Sumud, a group of young people who came together to defend their community in the wake of a dramatic direct action.

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