Susya – An Emptied Village in Palestine

The short film “Susya” from Dani Rosenberg and Yoav Gross premiered at the Berlinale in 2011. It tells the story of Israels expulsion and settlement policy in simple though powerful pictures. With few stage direction, it shows how the 60-year-old Muhammad Nawaj’ah and his son Nassah Nawaj’ah arrive at an archeological site of an ancient Jewish settlement and buy tickets to enter. This is their only way to return to their abandoned home village, which they have not visited for 25 years.

See it by yourself to get an idea of how it feels to be expelled of one´s home:

The film won the Best Short Film at Milano Film Festival, and a special mention in the Galil Shorts Festival in Israel.

Susya

The village of Susya has become symbolic for thousands of Palestinians who face expulsion from Israeli-controlled areas of the Occupied West Bank. In the past 25 years, the village has been destroyed five times in 1985, 1991, 1995, 1997 and twice in 2001. Further regular demolation of homes and tents followed until 2013. Historically seen was the place which is now called Susya home to Palestinians as well as Jews for centuries. The first Israeli settlement was founded in its neighborhood in 1983. Written records of the existence of a Palestinian community in its location exist from as far back as 1930 and the village is also found on British Mandate maps from 1917. Even-though the ownership of this land legally belongs to the Palestinian residents´, a relief of a Synagoge gave reason to the Israelian government to further expulse the Palestinian population over centuries and to establish an archeological center.

Nasser Nawaj’ah initiated a petitition on Avaaz to stop the Israelian governemnt of further abolishing the homes which are declared as “illegal outposts” by the Israelian government and also to get the publics attention to prevent that further villages get abolished.