Susya
Encyclopedia
Susya refers to the site of an ancient village of the biblical Judea
, in the southern Hebron Hills
of the West Bank
that has come to light in recent archeological investigations, to a Palestinian village settled in the 1830s, and to a religious communal
Israeli settlement
, under the jurisdiction of Har Hebron Regional Council
, established in 1983.
s, is not mentioned in any ancient text, and Jewish literature failed to register an ancient Jewish town on that site. It is thought by some to correspond to the Biblical Carmel
(Josh 15.5), a proposal made by Avraham Negev. Others argue that, in the wake of the Second Revolt (AD 132-5), when the Romans garrisoned Khirbet el-Karmil, identified as the biblical Carmel, religious Jews uncomfortable with pagan symbols moved 2 km south-west to the present Susya, which they perhaps already farmed, and that, while they still regarded their new community as Carmel, the name was lost when the village's fortunes declined in the early Arab period, perhaps because the new Muslim overlords would not have tolerated its economy, which was based on wine.
The site, in Arabic Khirbet Susiya/Susiyeh, "Ruin of the Liquorice Plant" was first described by V. Guérin in 1869, who first recognized its importance. The spelling Susya represents the Hebrew name, as determined by the Israeli Naming committee. In the Survey of Western Palestine, based on an observation in 1875 on the area of the southeastern slope of a hill west of Susya, Charles Warren
and Claude Conder labeled Susya as an 'Important public structure'. German accounts later stated that it was a remnant of an ancient church. In 1937, the building to the north was identified by L. A. Meyer and A. Reifenberg as the site of a synagogue.
of a synagogue. He, together with Ze'ev Yeivin and Ehud Netzer, then conducted the Israeli excavations at Khirbet Suseya, (subsequently named by a Hebrew calque as Horvat Susya) over 1971-1972, by the Palestinian village of Susiya Al-Qadime.
Such remains are intriguing because so far no excavations have uncovered undisputed evidence for synagogues before the 2nd century CE in Judea. The excavated synagogue dates from the 4th to the 7th century CE and was in continuous use until the 9th century CE. It is one of four of an architecturally unique group in the Southern Judean Hills, of the six synagogues identified in Judea as a whole, the lower number probably reflecting a shift in the Jewish population from Judah to Galilee
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The other three of this distinctive group are those of Eshtemoa
, Horvat Maon, and 'Anim. Three outstanding characteristics of the Susya-Eshtemoa group, group are their width, entrances at the short eastern wall, and the absence of columns to support the roof
According to David Amit, the architectural design, particularly the eastern entrance and axis of prayer, which differ from the majority of Galilean synagogues, exhibits the ramifications of the earliest halakhic law conserved in southern Judea for generations after the destruction of the Temple. This was forgotten in Galilee, but in Judea there was a closer adherence to older traditions reflecting closer proximity to Jerusalem. The eastern orientation may be also related to the idea of dissuading heretics and Christians in the same area, who bowed to the east, in the belief that the Shekinah lay in that direction.
The synagogue was built as a broadhouse, rather than along basilica lines, measuring 9 by 16 metres (27 by 48 feet built in well-wrought ashlar construction, with triple doorway façade in an eastward orientation, and the bema
and niche
at the centre of the northern wall. There was a secondary bema in the eastern section. Unlike other synagogues in Judea this had a gallery, made while reinforcing the western wall. East of the synagogue was an open courtyard surrounded on three sides by a roofed portico. The western side opened to the synagogue’s narthex
, and floor of narthex composed of coloured mosaics set in an interlaced pattern. This model was of short duration, yielding in the late Byzantine phase (6th/7th) to the basilica form, already elsewhere dominant in synagogue architecture.
In contrast to most Galilean synagogues with their façade and Torah
shrine
on the same Jerusalem-oriented wall, the Judean synagogue at Susya, (as well as Esthtemoa and Maon) has the niche on the northern Jerusalem-oriented wall and entrances on the east side wall. The synagogue floor of white tessera
e has three mosaic panels, the eastern one a Torah Shrine, two menorahs, one on a screen relief showing two lamps suspended from a bar between the menorah’s upper branches, perhaps, since the Torah shrine flanked by lampstands, symbolizing both a connection between the synagogue and the Temple for spotlighting the bema and giving light for scriptural readings, were by the reverse mirroring of the menorah pattern in the mosaics, heightened the central significance of the Torah shrine in the hall a lulav
, and an etrog
with columns on each side. Next to the columns is a landscape with deers ands rams. The central panel composed of geometric and floral patterns. A spoke-wheel design before the central bema, has led Gutman to believed it is the remnant of a zodiac wheel. Zodaic mosaics are important witness to the time, since they were systematically suppressed by the Church, and, their frequent construction in Palestinian synagogue floors may be an index of 'the "inculturation" of non-Jewish imagery and its resulting Judaization
'. The fragmentary state of the wheel mosaic is due to its replacement by a much cruder geometric pavement pattern, indicative of a desire to erase what later came to be thought of as objectionable imagery.
A motif that probably represented Daniel
in the lion's den, as in the mosaics discovered at Naaran near Jericho and Ein Samsam in the Golan was also tesselated, surviving only most fragmentarily. The figure, in an orans stance, flanked by lions, was scrubbed from the mosaics in line with later trends, in what Fine calls a ‘new aesthetic’ at Khirbet Susiya, one that refurbished the designs to suppress iconographic forms thought by later generations to be objectionable. We can only reconstruct the allusion to Daniel from the remaining final Hebrew letters remaining, namely -el, .
Another unique feature is number of inscriptions. Four were laid in mosaics: two in Hebrew, attesting perhaps to its conservation as a spoken language in this region and two in Aramaic. Nineteen fragmentary inscriptions, some of which were in Greek, were etched into the marble of the building. From these dedicatory inscriptions the impression is given that the synagogue was run by donors rather than by priests (kōhen
).
The abandoned synagogue, or its atrium or courtyard, was converted to a mosque around the 10th century. A niche on the northern wall used as a mihrab/mahrab dates to Saladin
's time, according to local tradition. In the 12th–13th centuries Crusaders garrisoned at nearby Chermala and Eshtemoa, and, in their wake, a few families, moved into the ruins to exploit the rich agricultural land.
The settlement on the hill contiguous to the synagogue seems to have once had a thriving economy. A fine store has been excavated from its ruins. It seems to have undergone a decline in the second half of the 4th century, and again in the 6th century. Some speak of abandonment though the evidence from the synagogue suggests continuity into the medieval period.
s of land. Since then the local villages, like Palestinian Susya, have been losing land, and being cut off from each other, as the nearby settlements of Carmel
, Maon
, Susya and Beit Yatir
began to be built and developed, and illegal outposts established. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Land next to the Palestinian village of Susya was confiscated from the village of Yatta
, from which a dozen local families had been expelled to make way on the pretext of archeological digs, according to one source. A major expansion of the new settlement began on 18 September 1999, when its boundaries expanded northwards and eastwards, with the Palestinian Shreiteh family allegedly losing roughly 150 more dunams.
The Palestinians that remain in the area live in tents on a small rocky hill between the settlement and the archeological park which is located within walking distance. Ten caves inhabited by Susya Palestinian families were blown up by the IDF
in 1996, and some 113 tents were destroyed in 1998. It is alleged that official documents asking them to leave the area address them generically as 'intruders' (polesh/intruder). Most of the rain-catching water cisterns used by the local Palestinian farmers of Susya were demolished by the Israeli army in 1999 and 2001. A local Susya resident told Amnesty International
,
On the 7th of May 1991 a settler from the Israeli settlement
of Susya shot dead a local Palestinian shepherd, under circumstances that were never clarified. On the 24th of March, 1992, a Palestinian who had been bound and tied, after stabbing another settler while the two were in a car, was then shot dead by Yoram Shkolnik, a settler from Susya. In 2001, a settler from Susya, Yair Har Sinai, was killed in a brawl with local Palestinians. A Palestinian, Jihad Najar, was convicted of murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment. The IDF then evicted the 300 Palestinians in the area, demolishing some of their makeshift homes. They have sought redress in an Israeli court. Jewish residents of Susya have harassed local Palestinians, destroyed their property, and hindered them from gathering their crops from olive groves.In 2009 Yaakov Teitel
, was indicted for the 2007 murder of a Palestinian shepherd from Susya.
While the Israeli settlement has mains power and piped water from Israel, the Palestinians depend on solar panels and wind turbine energy made possible by a Palestinian/Israeli NGO – Comet - and on wells. This project has been shortlisted for the BBC World Challenge which highlighted the involvement of two Israeli physicists, Elad Orian and Noam Dotan.
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
, in the southern Hebron Hills
Mount Hebron
Mount Hebron is a geographic region and geologic formation in the southern West Bank, with its western foothills extending into Israel. The area was in biblical times a center of the Israelite and Hasmonean kingdoms. The region lends its name to the Mount Hebron Regional Council....
of the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
that has come to light in recent archeological investigations, to a Palestinian village settled in the 1830s, and to a religious communal
Communal settlement (Israel)
A community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer....
Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
, under the jurisdiction of Har Hebron Regional Council
Har Hebron Regional Council
The Har Hevron Regional Council is an Israeli regional council in the southern Judean Hills area of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The headquarters are located adjacent to Otniel. The council was established in 1983...
, established in 1983.
History
Susya, whether it refers to the site of the synagogue or the ruins of the contiguous ancient and large settlement of some 60 dunamDunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s, is not mentioned in any ancient text, and Jewish literature failed to register an ancient Jewish town on that site. It is thought by some to correspond to the Biblical Carmel
Carmel (Biblical settlement)
Carmel was an ancient Israelite town in Judea.-Biblical references:There are several references to Carmel in the Bible. Carmel is mentioned as a city of Judah in 1 Samuel 15:12 and 55 and also in Joshua 15:12 and 55. It is mentioned as the place where Saul erects a monument after the expedition...
(Josh 15.5), a proposal made by Avraham Negev. Others argue that, in the wake of the Second Revolt (AD 132-5), when the Romans garrisoned Khirbet el-Karmil, identified as the biblical Carmel, religious Jews uncomfortable with pagan symbols moved 2 km south-west to the present Susya, which they perhaps already farmed, and that, while they still regarded their new community as Carmel, the name was lost when the village's fortunes declined in the early Arab period, perhaps because the new Muslim overlords would not have tolerated its economy, which was based on wine.
The site, in Arabic Khirbet Susiya/Susiyeh, "Ruin of the Liquorice Plant" was first described by V. Guérin in 1869, who first recognized its importance. The spelling Susya represents the Hebrew name, as determined by the Israeli Naming committee. In the Survey of Western Palestine, based on an observation in 1875 on the area of the southeastern slope of a hill west of Susya, Charles Warren
Charles Warren
General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...
and Claude Conder labeled Susya as an 'Important public structure'. German accounts later stated that it was a remnant of an ancient church. In 1937, the building to the north was identified by L. A. Meyer and A. Reifenberg as the site of a synagogue.
Ancient synagogue
The site was examined by Shemarya Gutman in 1969, who uncovered it during a trial dig the narthexNarthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
of a synagogue. He, together with Ze'ev Yeivin and Ehud Netzer, then conducted the Israeli excavations at Khirbet Suseya, (subsequently named by a Hebrew calque as Horvat Susya) over 1971-1972, by the Palestinian village of Susiya Al-Qadime.
Such remains are intriguing because so far no excavations have uncovered undisputed evidence for synagogues before the 2nd century CE in Judea. The excavated synagogue dates from the 4th to the 7th century CE and was in continuous use until the 9th century CE. It is one of four of an architecturally unique group in the Southern Judean Hills, of the six synagogues identified in Judea as a whole, the lower number probably reflecting a shift in the Jewish population from Judah to Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The other three of this distinctive group are those of Eshtemoa
Eshtemoa
Eshtemoa, meaning obedience, is a name found in the Bible.*A son of Ishbah or maybe a town inhabited by Ishbah's descendants. *A descendent of Bithiah princess of Egypt and Mered ....
, Horvat Maon, and 'Anim. Three outstanding characteristics of the Susya-Eshtemoa group, group are their width, entrances at the short eastern wall, and the absence of columns to support the roof
According to David Amit, the architectural design, particularly the eastern entrance and axis of prayer, which differ from the majority of Galilean synagogues, exhibits the ramifications of the earliest halakhic law conserved in southern Judea for generations after the destruction of the Temple. This was forgotten in Galilee, but in Judea there was a closer adherence to older traditions reflecting closer proximity to Jerusalem. The eastern orientation may be also related to the idea of dissuading heretics and Christians in the same area, who bowed to the east, in the belief that the Shekinah lay in that direction.
The synagogue was built as a broadhouse, rather than along basilica lines, measuring 9 by 16 metres (27 by 48 feet built in well-wrought ashlar construction, with triple doorway façade in an eastward orientation, and the bema
Bimah
A bimah A bimah A bimah (among Ashkenazim, derived from Hebrew בּמה , almemar (from Arabic al-minbar) or tebah (among Sephardim) is the elevated area or platform in a Jewish synagogue which is intended to serve the place where the person reading aloud from the Torah stands during the Torah reading...
and niche
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
at the centre of the northern wall. There was a secondary bema in the eastern section. Unlike other synagogues in Judea this had a gallery, made while reinforcing the western wall. East of the synagogue was an open courtyard surrounded on three sides by a roofed portico. The western side opened to the synagogue’s narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
, and floor of narthex composed of coloured mosaics set in an interlaced pattern. This model was of short duration, yielding in the late Byzantine phase (6th/7th) to the basilica form, already elsewhere dominant in synagogue architecture.
In contrast to most Galilean synagogues with their façade and Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
on the same Jerusalem-oriented wall, the Judean synagogue at Susya, (as well as Esthtemoa and Maon) has the niche on the northern Jerusalem-oriented wall and entrances on the east side wall. The synagogue floor of white tessera
Tessera
A tessera is an individual tile in a mosaic, usually formed in the shape of a cube. It is also known as an abaciscus, abaculus, or, in Persian کاشي معرق. In antiquity, mosaics were formed from naturally colored pebbles, but by 200 BC purpose-made tesserae were being used...
e has three mosaic panels, the eastern one a Torah Shrine, two menorahs, one on a screen relief showing two lamps suspended from a bar between the menorah’s upper branches, perhaps, since the Torah shrine flanked by lampstands, symbolizing both a connection between the synagogue and the Temple for spotlighting the bema and giving light for scriptural readings, were by the reverse mirroring of the menorah pattern in the mosaics, heightened the central significance of the Torah shrine in the hall a lulav
Lulav
The Lulav is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the arba'ah minim used in the morning prayer services during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot...
, and an etrog
Etrog
Etrog refers to the yellow citron or Citrus medica used by Jews on the week-long holiday of Sukkot.While in modern Hebrew this is the name for any variety of citron, its English usage applies to those varieties and specimens used as one of the Four Species...
with columns on each side. Next to the columns is a landscape with deers ands rams. The central panel composed of geometric and floral patterns. A spoke-wheel design before the central bema, has led Gutman to believed it is the remnant of a zodiac wheel. Zodaic mosaics are important witness to the time, since they were systematically suppressed by the Church, and, their frequent construction in Palestinian synagogue floors may be an index of 'the "inculturation" of non-Jewish imagery and its resulting Judaization
Judaization
Judaization is a process of cultural assimilation in which a person or a demographic group acquires Jewish cultural and religious beliefs and values....
'. The fragmentary state of the wheel mosaic is due to its replacement by a much cruder geometric pavement pattern, indicative of a desire to erase what later came to be thought of as objectionable imagery.
A motif that probably represented Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
in the lion's den, as in the mosaics discovered at Naaran near Jericho and Ein Samsam in the Golan was also tesselated, surviving only most fragmentarily. The figure, in an orans stance, flanked by lions, was scrubbed from the mosaics in line with later trends, in what Fine calls a ‘new aesthetic’ at Khirbet Susiya, one that refurbished the designs to suppress iconographic forms thought by later generations to be objectionable. We can only reconstruct the allusion to Daniel from the remaining final Hebrew letters remaining, namely -el, .
Another unique feature is number of inscriptions. Four were laid in mosaics: two in Hebrew, attesting perhaps to its conservation as a spoken language in this region and two in Aramaic. Nineteen fragmentary inscriptions, some of which were in Greek, were etched into the marble of the building. From these dedicatory inscriptions the impression is given that the synagogue was run by donors rather than by priests (kōhen
Kohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
).
The abandoned synagogue, or its atrium or courtyard, was converted to a mosque around the 10th century. A niche on the northern wall used as a mihrab/mahrab dates to Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
's time, according to local tradition. In the 12th–13th centuries Crusaders garrisoned at nearby Chermala and Eshtemoa, and, in their wake, a few families, moved into the ruins to exploit the rich agricultural land.
The settlement on the hill contiguous to the synagogue seems to have once had a thriving economy. A fine store has been excavated from its ruins. It seems to have undergone a decline in the second half of the 4th century, and again in the 6th century. Some speak of abandonment though the evidence from the synagogue suggests continuity into the medieval period.
Modern era: local population, Israeli settlement and conflict
Susya was in early modern times a village constituted of permanent cave homes. The Israeli settlement, which as of 2006 has a population of 737, was established between May and September 1983, on 1,800 dunamDunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s of land. Since then the local villages, like Palestinian Susya, have been losing land, and being cut off from each other, as the nearby settlements of Carmel
Carmel
Carmel in the Bible refers to two distinct places:* Mount Carmel, coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea* Carmel , an ancient Israelite town in Judea...
, Maon
Maon
Maon may refer to:*Preon, theoretical component of quarks*Ma'on, Har Hebron, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank*Ma'on , ancient town in the Negev, southeast of modern Khan Yunis*Ma'on , referred to in the Hebrew Bible, home of Nabal...
, Susya and Beit Yatir
Beit Yatir
Beit Yatir , also known as Metzadot Yehuda , is a religious Orthodox moshav and Israeli settlement in the southern Hebron Hills of the West Bank along the Green Line south of Susiya...
began to be built and developed, and illegal outposts established. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law
International law and Israeli settlements
The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law, but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the...
, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Land next to the Palestinian village of Susya was confiscated from the village of Yatta
Yatta, Hebron
Yatta or Yattah is a Palestinian city located in the Hebron Governorate on a high approximately 8 km south of the city of Hebron in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics it had a population of 48,672 in 2007....
, from which a dozen local families had been expelled to make way on the pretext of archeological digs, according to one source. A major expansion of the new settlement began on 18 September 1999, when its boundaries expanded northwards and eastwards, with the Palestinian Shreiteh family allegedly losing roughly 150 more dunams.
The Palestinians that remain in the area live in tents on a small rocky hill between the settlement and the archeological park which is located within walking distance. Ten caves inhabited by Susya Palestinian families were blown up by the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
in 1996, and some 113 tents were destroyed in 1998. It is alleged that official documents asking them to leave the area address them generically as 'intruders' (polesh/intruder). Most of the rain-catching water cisterns used by the local Palestinian farmers of Susya were demolished by the Israeli army in 1999 and 2001. A local Susya resident told Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
,
'Water is life ; without water we can’t live; not us, not the animals, or the plants. Before we had some water, but after the army destroyed everything we have to bring water from far away ; it’s very difficult and expensive. They make our life very difficult, to make us leave.'
On the 7th of May 1991 a settler from the Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
of Susya shot dead a local Palestinian shepherd, under circumstances that were never clarified. On the 24th of March, 1992, a Palestinian who had been bound and tied, after stabbing another settler while the two were in a car, was then shot dead by Yoram Shkolnik, a settler from Susya. In 2001, a settler from Susya, Yair Har Sinai, was killed in a brawl with local Palestinians. A Palestinian, Jihad Najar, was convicted of murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment. The IDF then evicted the 300 Palestinians in the area, demolishing some of their makeshift homes. They have sought redress in an Israeli court. Jewish residents of Susya have harassed local Palestinians, destroyed their property, and hindered them from gathering their crops from olive groves.In 2009 Yaakov Teitel
Yaakov Teitel
Yaakov "Jack" Teitel is an American-Israeli Orthodox Jew arrested in October 2009 for his alleged connection to various acts of domestic terror. Teitel moved to Israel in 2000, and has been living since then in the West-Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel.Teitel lived in Israel for several months in...
, was indicted for the 2007 murder of a Palestinian shepherd from Susya.
While the Israeli settlement has mains power and piped water from Israel, the Palestinians depend on solar panels and wind turbine energy made possible by a Palestinian/Israeli NGO – Comet - and on wells. This project has been shortlisted for the BBC World Challenge which highlighted the involvement of two Israeli physicists, Elad Orian and Noam Dotan.