Israel’s Supreme Court recently postponed hearing an appeal filed by community leaders of Susiya, a small and embattled village situated in the dramatically rolling terrain of the the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The struggle to save Susiya affirms the broader nature of life under an asphyxiating stripe of martial law: while the Israeli government employs both its formal—military—and informal—settlers—forces to further its colonial project, the indigenous inhabitants of the land exert laborious efforts to secure their existence.
Because Susiya has been dealt the unlucky fate of being where an illegal Israeli settlement was established in 1983, Regavim, a rightwing Israeli settler advocacy group, filed a petition protesting the court’s decision to delay the hearing and called on Israeli occupation forces to immediate implement pending demolition orders.
It differs little from hundreds of communities and villages across the West Bank: its residents live under the ever present threat of the military violence and settler attacks that characterize life under occupation. But in recent years, by executing popular struggles that draw the attention of media and activists, the village has chalked up several successes against the state’s attempts to forcefully dispossess them of their land.
Continue reading “Palestine’s Front Line: The Struggle for Susiya” »





