The village Zanuta is located near the city of Dahariya in the area of the city of Hebron. In the village live 27 families who establish neighborly relations, closeness, mutual help and marriage. The villagers are shepherds, and also have agriculture for self-consumption. Until the 1980s they lived in caves which began to collapse so they built huts near the caves. Since 2007, the occupation authorities have claimed that the buildings are illegal and demolition orders have been issued to them, despite the fact that no other viable housing solution has been given to residents. In addition to the daily stress of living under threat of house destruction, the residents are suffering from harassment by the residents of the illegal outposts in the area. The settlers disturb the herds in the pasture and bring their herds to the village lands and destroy the crop.
Imagine the life of a man who barely makes a living from self-farming and tending flocks who every morning does not know what day awaits him and when someone will come to harm his sources of livelihood. Here is what the sequence of events in recent weeks in the village looks like:
On Thursday 17.2.22, colonists and their flock invaded Palestinian tended fields in Zanuta in the presence of Israeli soldiers. On Friday next morning, the colonists returned with their flock to the tended fields below the new ranch-outpost near ‘Meitarim’, and when the landowners tried to remove the flock, they were attacked by the colonists who set their dog on them. A Palestinian shepherd was bitten in view of the soldiers, who did nothing. On Saturday, too, the terrorists returned with their flock from the ranch-outpost, accompanied by dogs and soldiers, to invade and vandalize the tended fields of Zanuta. Army and the DCO officer who arrived claimed they are allowed to graze there, and only at the intervention of activists and an attorney, were they thwarted. However, the invaders returned to vandalize the fields the next day -
Colonists from the ranch-outpost near ‘Meitarim’ invaded Palestinian-tended fields in Zanuta with their flocks on Sunday, February 20. Local farmers and activists were present, and when the police arrived, the colonists took their flock out of the field but entered other fields. The invasion was repeated on Monday and Tuesday, police distanced the colonists but they returned later to vandalize other fields.
ON Sunday, February 27, colonists from the new ranch-outpost near ‘Meitarim’ flew a drone above Palestinian flocks near Zanuta. The next day, Monday, they invaded tended village fields with their flocks. On Wednesday they returned to the tended fields and were removed by police summoned there by activists. On Saturday, soldiers and DCO personnel escorted a colonist who tried to chase away Zanuta shepherds falsely claiming the land was his. The soldiers threatened the shepherds and hurled a stun grenade at a dog that barked at them.
