The Israeli High Court on Wednesday greenlit the forcible expulsion of 1,200 Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern occupied West Bank, ending a more than two-decade battle in the courts.
The Israeli government claims the residents of eight herding communities in an area of the South Hebron Hills, known as Masafer Yatta, are residing “illegally” in a military firing zone, and has been attempting to expel them from the area for decades.
The residents of Masafer Yatta, however, date their presence in the area several decades ago, before the area was occupied by Israel in 1967, and declared a firing zone by the military in the 1980s.
Late Wednesday night, the High Court rejected an appeal by the residents against their expulsion, paving the way for the Israeli military to demolish their homes and forcibly expel them from their land, a crime under international law.
In its ruling, the court found that the Palestinian residents “had not been permanent residents of the area” when it was first declared as a firing zone in the 1980s, therefore deeming their presence in the area “illegal.”
In its ruling the court urged the residents to reach “a compromise” with the Israeli military to allow them to use parts of the land for agricultural purposes, something the residents have rejected.
In a statement after the decision, Masafer Yatta’s mayor Nidal Abu Younis rejected the court’s decision, saying it “proves that this court is part of the occupation,” Reuters reported.
“We are not going to leave our homes. We will stay here,” he said.
Firing Zone 918
In the 1980s, the Israeli military declared an area of around 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) in Masafer Yatta, as a restricted military zone, dubbing it ‘Firing Zone 918’.
Since then, the Israeli government has sought to expel the residents from the area. Despite a number of legal petitions by the residents, Israel has treated the area as a closed military zone, forcibly expelling hundreds of residents from the area and demolishing their homes.
The court’s decision on Wednesday dates back to a case that started in 1999, when the Israeli military expelled all of the residents of Masafer Yatta, numbering around 700 at the time, on the grounds they were “illegally living in a firing zone”. In response, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Attorney Shlomo Lecker filed a petition to the High Court on behalf of 200 Palestinian families.
Following the petition, the court issued an interim injunction allowing the villagers to return to their homes and use the land for agriculture purposes, but banned them from any new construction, including homes or essential infrastructure like power or water networks.
According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, since 2006, Israel has demolished 64 homes in the communities in Masafer Yatta, displacing at least 346 people, including 155 minors.
“After 20 years of legal proceedings, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the forcible transfer of hundreds of Palestinians from their homes – for the clear purpose of taking over their lands in the service of Jewish interests – is legal,” B’Tselem said in a scathing statement on Thursday.
“Proving once again that the occupied cannot expect justice from the occupier’s court, the decision, weaving baseless legal interpretation with decontextualized facts, makes it clear that there is no crime which the HCJ justices won’t find a way to legitimize,” the group said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council also condemned the court’s decision, calling it a “dangerous step that must be reversed.”
“This court ruling effectively opens the door for the Israeli military to uproot entire Palestinian communities that have lived in Masafer Yatta for decades. The damage this decision will inflict on people’s homes and source of livelihoods is irredeemable. People could be made homeless overnight with nowhere for them to go,” Caroline Ort, NRC’s Country Director for Palestine said in a statement.
“If followed through, it would constitute a violation of international law which prohibits Israel as an occupying power from transferring members of the occupied population from their existing communities against their will,” she said.
The minutes of a 1981 ministerial meeting show that Ariel Sharon, minister of Agriculture at the time, proposed the allocation of 3000 hectares of Palestinian land in the Masafer Yatta area to the Israeli army, supposedly for a firing range. But the real purpose was to force the Palestinians out of their homes and hand the land over to the settlers for colonisation. Israel’s Supreme Court as it turns out, has been part and parcel of this thieving scheme. Any vestige of respectability it once had has now fallen by the wayside after this abject siding with the violators of international law and the occupiers. The Supreme Court too is now controlled by the settlers. It is as bad as the military court in Ofer.
What makes the ethnic cleansing of 1200 Palestinians from the 8 hamlets in the Masafer Yatta area stand out is that they are part of the last cave dwelling communities in Palestine, maintaining an ancient tradition. Palestinian anthropologist Ali Qleibo has researched these communities. According to his research until the 19th century all of the tribes south of Jerusalem to the outskirts of Beersheba were cave dwellers, utilising the natural features of the land. “The powerful symbolism of these caves still resonates in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition, as is evident in the Cave of Abraham in Hebron, the Cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the cave under the Dome of the Rock”.
These communities are adapted to the arid and challenging conditions and live in harmony with its environment. The cave dwellers of Palestine reflect the amazing diversity of Palestinian society. Sadly much of Palestinian society as it existed before 1948 has already been destroyed by political Zionism and lies buried under pine forests, the inhabitants either expelled or killed and having to live with the Zionist propaganda that simply denies that there was a thriving Palestinian society here.
In my opinion the wanton destruction of the Palestinian cave dwelling communities by the Zionist state for the benefit of foreign settlers is not only ethnic cleansing, but an act of cultural genocide.
Time after time Zionism shows its true face as an excluding colonial settler ideology.
No wonder that B’tselem has given up on Israel’s legal system. Palestinians will find no justice here.
We must protest these war crimes, and embarass the EU and American governments over their inaction. This is a time to step up and deepen the BDS movement world wide!
Hitler must be dancing in his grave…For shame, israel…for shame!
This ruling makes sense when we consider that the “High Court” is an integral part of the Zionist system. e.g.
“Terrorism: How the Israeli state was won”
https://mondoweiss.net/2017/01/terrorism-israeli-state
“As mob of Jewish supremacists unleash ‘pogrom’ against Palestinians in Jerusalem– AIPAC crows about 331 Congress members standing by Israel”
https://mondoweiss.net/2021/04/as-mob-of-jewish-supremacists-unleash-pogrom-against-palestinians-in-jerusalem-aipac-crows-about-331-congress-members-standing-by-israel/
“It’s time for American Jews to recognize they have been duped”
https://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/american-recognize-duped
Why are you calling ethnic cleansing: “forcible expulsion”? This in my opinion, makes you complicit with this Crime Against Humanity. If you are not determined to call in by its name in every case and at every opportunity, you are perpetuating this crime.