A tale of two attacks: Masafer Yatta when the cameras aren’t rolling

In the ongoing cycle of violence under occupation, the small village of Jinba in my community of Masafer Yatta has borne the brunt of Israeli settler and military aggression. While global attention often sways to high-profile incidents, such as attacks against well-known individuals, the tragedy in Jinba has largely gone unnoticed by much of the international community. 

Jinba is a remote village located in the southern West Bank. Like many Palestinian communities surviving occupiers’ violence, the residents of Jinba have experienced years of dispossession — perpetrated by both Israeli settlers and the Israeli military. The village, like countless others in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, is situated in an area where illegal Israeli settlements are expanding, and this development is often accompanied by brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians.

Masafer Yatta is comprised of a number of Palestinian herding communities residing in several small villages. Residents of the area have been facing threats of expulsion and the demolition of their homes since 1981 — when the areas where they lived were designated as “firing zones” for the Israeli military. That firing zone encompasses 12 Palestinian villages. Jinba is one of them.

On the day of the attack on Hamdan Ballal, the co-director of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which garnered widespread media attention, Jinba was also subjected to a violent raid by Israeli settlers. Armed and backed by Israeli military forces, settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds, barging into homes, and severely beating children and adults alike. An elderly man and a child both required surgery for head injuries sustained from a brutal beating. They were both hospitalized for about a week, undergoing surgery to repair skull fractures and stop bleeding in the brain.

The response to these injuries was swift, but not in the way many would expect — 22 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces, but not a single Israeli settler was detained. Within 24 hours, 13 of the arrested Palestinians were released with no charges, while the remaining seven were kept in jail for four days. Upon their release, they were slapped with fines of 5,000 Israeli shekels each, approximately $1,330. The absurdity of the charges and the fines, given that there was no cause for the arrests in the first place, highlights the discriminatory treatment inflicted upon Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. The mere act of existing and being the target of violence is enough to warrant arrest and heavy fines.

But the violence did not stop there. During the night following the attack, Israeli soldiers, supported by settlers, returned to the village of Jinba. This time, they destroyed the local school — damaging furniture, windows, and solar panels that provided electricity to the school. Most crucially, they destroyed the cameras that had captured the evidence of the previous day’s settler attack. The destruction of this evidence speaks to the broader pattern of efforts to erase the proof of settler violence and prevent any form of accountability for those responsible.

The continued attacks on Jinba, and many other villages like it, underscore the harsh reality of life for Palestinians. These attacks are not simply about the immediate violence inflicted upon individuals; they are part of a long-term strategy aimed at erasing Palestinian presence from the land. The Israeli government has long pursued a policy of dispossession and displacement, forcing Palestinians off their land and into refugee camps, only to destroy those camps as well. This cycle of violence and displacement is intended to make way for more illegal settlements for Israeli colonizers.

Yet, despite the increasing scale of this violence, the international response remains weak and insufficient. The destruction of homes, the assault on civilians, and the forced displacement of entire communities continue unabated, with no consequence for those responsible. Israeli settlers operate with impunity, knowing they have the backing of the Israeli military and the tacit approval of the international community’s silence.

The question we must ask ourselves is why the world is unresponsive to the plight of the people of Jinba and why their suffering is often rendered invisible. Is it because they lack the fame, media attention, or recognition that could bring their stories to the global stage? The attack on Jinba should not be an isolated tragedy ignored because it does not fit within the framework of what is deemed “worthy” of attention.

What happened in Jinba, like the experiences of Palestinians living under occupation, is not new. The violence and brutality are part of a long-standing history of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. For decades, the Israeli government and settlers have worked to erase Palestinian communities from the land. Yet, the world’s reaction to these crimes remains muted, and the people of Palestine continue to be denied basic human rights.

The destruction of the school and the erasure of evidence are stark reminders of how entrenched the violence is and how difficult it is for us Palestinians to document and hold perpetrators accountable. In this context, the silence of the international community is complicit in the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people. The people of Jinba and other Palestinian villages deserve more than just a passing headline. They deserve justice, they deserve recognition, and they deserve dignity.

The attack on Jinba also reveals the deep-seated inequalities in the way Palestinians are treated by the world. Our suffering is minimized, our humanity overlooked, and our stories erased when an Oscar isn’t involved. It is time to change that narrative and bring the world’s attention to the victims of this ongoing tragedy — the people of Palestinian communities who continue to survive the colonial project. 

The world cannot continue to ignore the cries of those who suffer in silence. My people in Jinba and every Palestinian living under occupation deserve to be seen, heard, and valued as human beings, not as statistics or casualties of a conflict. The media, international bodies, and governments must step up and demand accountability for the violence that has been allowed to persist unchecked for decades. Only then can we hope for a future where our people in Jinba, and all Palestinians, can live in dignity.