For years the Masafer Yatta area south of al-Khalil has been subjected to continuous Israeli attacks with the aim of displacing its people and confiscating their lands by defining it as firing zone 918.
Last week Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition against the eviction of more than 2000 Palestinian inhabitants of a rural part of the occupied West Bank in an area Israel had designated a zone for military exercises.
After two decades of inconclusive legal maneuvering the Supreme Court issued its ruling a week ago paving the way for the demolition of eight small villages in Masafer Yatta a rocky arid area near al-Khalil.
In its ruling the court said it had found the Palestinian dwellers who have kept a distinct generations-long nomadic way of life making a living from farming and herding had not been permanent residents of the area when the Israeli military first declared it a firing zone in the 1980s.
Masafer Yatta residents’ eviction would constitute a breach of international law and the Geneva Conventions.
Speaking to the PIC reporter Nidal Abu Younis Masafer Yatta’s mayor said the court’s order paves the way for the demolition of 12 small villages in Masafer Yatta
“This proves that this court is part of the occupation. We are not going to leave our homes. We will stay here” he said.
“This decision will destroy people’s homes and source of livelihoods. People could be made homeless overnight with nowhere for them to go.”
Palestinian researcher Sari Orabi considered the court’s order as a clear armed robbery against Palestinian lands.
The court’s order proves that the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) is still ongoing he continued in a statement to the PIC.
He pointed out that the Israeli Supreme Court is nothing but a tool of the colonial entity.
In its ruling the Israeli court said it had found the Palestinian dwellers who have kept a distinct generations-long nomadic way of life making a living from farming and herding had not been permanent residents of the area when the Israeli military first declared it a firing zone in the 1980s.
Masafer Yatta residents say that many of the Palestinian families have been permanently residing in the 3000-hectare area since before Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War.
Home demolitions confiscation of the most basic infrastructure and military training exercises are already part of everyday reality in the area forcing many to live in natural caves.
Israeli authorities have demolished or confiscated 217 Palestinian structures in “Firing Zone 918” since 2011 displacing 608 Palestinian residents according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israel has designated nearly 30 percent of Israel-administered Area C which comprises 60 percent of the occupied West Bank as “firing zones” according to the UN.
