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Masafer Yatta, an area in the southern West Bank, is home to 2,800 Palestinians spread out over different small villages, 12 of which are designated as “firing zones” by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Masafer Yatta came under occupation in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. In the 1980s, the IDF declared Masafer Yatta would become “Firing Zone 918”, meaning that the area would become a closed military area for Israeli soldiers to conduct military trainings and that no civil presence would be allowed. Consequentially, the area’s Palestinian inhabitants cannot till their land and face the threat of expulsion, property confiscations, and home demolitions.
Ali Awad is a Palestinian youth activist based in Masafer Yatta, West Bank.
In 1993, following the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Masafer Yatta was designated as “Area C”. This meant it came under full Israeli military and administrative control, albeit only for an interim period. After 1999, this area — along with the rest of the Palestinian lands in Area C — was to be transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction and come under full Palestinian sovereignty and control. However, the occupation’s domination persisted, and illegal Israeli settlements continued to spread across the area — by now, there are eight of them.
Israel remains the occupying power to this day, putting Masafer Yatta’s inhabitants at serious risk of forcible eviction. Sari Harb, a programme manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Regional Office for Palestine and Jordan in Ramallah, spoke with Ali Awad, a youth activist from Masafer Yatta, about the difficulties he and his neighbours face on a daily basis and what hopes for the future they harbour.
Let’s start with a basic question: what is happening in Masafer Yatta? What is the current situation?
In May of this year, Israel’s High Court gave the [Israeli] military a green light to expel over 1,000 Palestinians from this area, including my own community of Tuba. Israeli forces already deported us from here once before, in 1999, when I was only one year old. That time, they loaded us onto military trucks and drove us away before the Israeli court issued an interim injunction allowing us to return following an appeal. This time, it seems that the displacement from what Israel calls “Firing Zone 918” may look quite different — and even scarier.
In the weeks since May’s court decision, which ruled that there are no legal barriers to the planned expulsion of Palestinian residents from Masafer Yatta to make way for military training, people’s lives here have become much harder. The IDF hopes that by persecuting us enough they will make it impossible to stay, thus forcing us to leave “voluntarily”. By holding live-fire training drills next to our villages this month, for example, they are saying to us: “Your home has become our military playground. We will do whatever we want, never mind that you live here.”
Masafer Yatta used to be an active and vibrant region. Palestinians from across the country would regularly visit to enjoy the beautiful nature in springtime. But since the court hearing, and with the Israeli army intensifying its efforts to restrict the movement of Palestinians here, people are too afraid to come. In the eyes of the soldiers, everyone is now subject to arrest for being in the “firing zone”, including the residents of the villages located inside it.
Why do you think Masafer Yatta is appealing to the state of Israel?
As a settler-colonial state, Israel wants the land, but not the people. What is happening in Masafer Yatta is the continuous Nakba that has been happening since 1948. It is part of their annexation plan of Area C, and that means that they need to expel the people.
As a colonial-capitalist regime, the Israel state wants all the land to capitalize its businesses. It claims that Masafer Yatta is non-productive land that they want to transform into agricultural land — although Masafer Yatta has historically been a vibrant land and source of livelihoods for Palestinians. How we see it nowadays, the occupation is the main obstacle making the land non-productive. Israel is annexing the land, cutting the water and electricity, removing Palestinians, and building Israeli settlements. Such measures would make any land non-productive, even in Germany.
What will happen to the residents who are forcibly removed from Masafer Yatta? And how are they coping?
We will keep defending our land. Masafer Yatta is our home. It has been vibrant for generations, and we are determined to resist and remain steadfast. Regardless of how many times they demolish schools and homes, we will keep building until we are free.
Can you elaborate on “Firing Zone 918”?
The Israeli colonial project always aims to expel Palestinians from their lands. Declaring lands as a firing zone is one of their tactics. When a firing zone for military training is declared, no civilian presence is allowed.
In 1980, Israel declared 3,000 hectares a firing zone. Since then, our daily life has become hell, as Israeli forces blocked us from building and getting water and electricity so as to force us to leave. This is a war crime.
How do you evaluate the Israeli justice system in the case of Masafer Yatta?
We don’t trust the Israeli justice system, as it’s part of the Israeli colonial system. We go to the Israeli court knowing beforehand that it will not rule in our favour. However, we hope that by going to the Israeli court we can slow down the demolitions and confiscations. We hope that with time, more Palestinians will join our efforts in defending the land. More pressure from the outside can also put pressure on Israel to stop its forcible eviction plans in Masafer Yatta and on all occupied land.
The Israeli Court’s decision regarding Masafer Yatta, which was already being carried out with the expulsion of the Najjar family on 11 May, is an important step towards the annexation of Area C. If Israel can evict the residents of twelve villages with a population of over 1,000 Palestinians unhindered, more such expulsions are anticipated — not only in the south of Hebron but throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian villagers of Masafer Yatta and their legal representation know very well that no real “justice” can be obtained from the Israeli court system. They continue to fight the legal war anyway, in the hope that a combination of factors, including solidarity in Palestine and pressure from the outside, can ultimately succeed in compelling Israel to delay its planned destruction and Judaization of the whole region.
Do you receive any support from international bodies?
Yes, but it’s limited, and most of the time it does not tackle the root of the problem, which is the occupation. Take, for example, our right to electricity in Masafer Yatta: Israel is an occupying power that should provide us with electricity, but it does not, while illegal settlements are fully lit.
This is the reason that the organization Comet-ME [which provides basic energy and clean-water services] was founded: because European governments are more inclined to emergency humanitarian support as a response to the occupation's violations of our basic rights. Yes, this offers us a temporary solution for electricity now, but it is still under the threat of being demolished by occupation forces. In this respect, such endeavours may focus on providing temporary solutions rather than sanctioning Israeli destruction of our villages, so that we can build all the basic infrastructure needed.
International support should not be a band-aid. On the contrary, it should work towards ending the occupation. Just look at international positions towards what’s happening in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Palestinians have been going through much worse, but Israel is not held accountable. This is a double standard.
How do you view coverage of what is happening by international media?
We wish the mainstream media would not be hypocritical. We see how mainstream media is covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how they support the right of the Ukrainian people to self-defence of their lands, but when it comes to the case of Palestine, suddenly the Palestinians are demonized, although they are defending their lands from invasion and occupation.
What we want from international media is to be professional and report on events the way they are. For example, it is not a “conflict”, rather, it is a military occupation — a settler colonization of Palestine.
Today, we are creating our own platforms, with our narrative and discourse, and that is helping a bit in making our voices heard.