by Sophie Claudet
SUSYA, West Bank, Sept 7 (AFP) - Palestinian cave dwellers, who have seen their homes destroyed and been constantly harassed by settlers, are looking to the Israeli supreme court to grant them a stay of execution from efforts to throw them off of their land.
"I will die on the land of my ancestors, no matter what," said 75-year-old Sara Nawajaa who, like another 14 peasant families, saw the cave she was living in razed by army bulldozers three years ago.
She has since been living under a makeshift tent that hardly provides any protection against the blazing summer heat and bone-chilling winters.
The 2001 demolitions by the Israeli army and settlers resulted in a supreme court ruling a few months later that families should not expelled and should be allowed back to their land.
But the October 2001 ruling in favor of the Palestinians was only temporary and Israeli state attorneys have recently asked it be rescinded. The government's demand and a new petition lodged by the villagers are to be examined by the Jewish state's highest court on Wednesday.
Residents of this hilly and fertile region of the southern West Bank want to be granted the necessary permits to build concrete structures and for army protection from settlers living just a few hundred yards (metres) away.
The petition also calls for an end to army demolitions and for the removal of six trailers near the Susya settlement which the villagers slam as illegal expansion on their land.
Shlomo Lecker, the Israeli lawyer representing the 15 families labelled the case "difficult" as he underscored the government and settlers' "intention to clear the area of Palestinians."
"The settlers in Susya are known to be extremists and have good connections with Israel's right-wing politicians. They also run the civil administration here," said Lecker, in reference to the Israeli army's civilian arm that administers the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians here complained of incessant harassment and threats by their settler neighbors who they said often act with the full knowledge or even backing of troops posted in and around the settlement.
Nasr Nawajaa, 22, said he filmed a woman being beaten up by settlers in front of her three young daughters last Saturday.
"Thank God they didn't see me. I took to the video tape to Taayush -- an Israeli rights group -- and I hope this will help us at Wednesday's court ruling," he said.
The young man, who used to work in Israel before the intifada broke out in September 2000, is now forced to work the land -- or what little is left of it.
"Soldiers near the settlement don't let us access our fields," he said, pointing to a soldier stationed a few hundred yards away.
Families with children have long left Susya as roads to the closest town of Yata that hosts the only hospital and school in the vicinity were sealed off soon after September 2000.
Nasr like others hoped the court would rule in their favor but was worried about another looming battle over Israel's controversial West Bank barrier.
Work on the southern sanction began on Sunday and is set to leave Susya stranded in a no-man's land, sealing their isolation from Hebron.
The barrier aims to incorporate as many settlements as possible into Israel, and at least three around Susya.
"We will be cut off from the West Bank without being recognized as residents of Israel. "It's obvious they want to get rid of us," sighed 61-year-old Alia Nawajaa, a relative and member of the same clan, also vowing to "stay put even if they try to remove me by force."