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Masafer Yatta

Act Now To Stop The Violence In Masafer Yatta

A group of human rights defenders from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), citizens from the above countries, are currently in villages of Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, in solidarity with communities who are facing immediate threats to their lives and of displacement.  Israeli settlers and soldiers have taken advantage of the state of emergency during the current Israeli onslaught in Gaza to escalate their violence and displacement of Palestinians in the southern region of the West Bank. Armed settlers and soldiers have attacked villages of Masafer Yatta daily in recent weeks.

I Saw What Turning Masafer Yatta Into An Israeli Military ‘Firing Zone’ Means

Since a ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court on May 4, the Israeli military has been actively training in Masafer Yatta, in the middle of eight villages and hamlets where more than 1,100 Palestinians are living. More than half of the residents are children. Masafer Yatta covers more than 210 square miles, an area about the size of the Gaza Strip. It is located 16 miles south of Hebron down to the 1949 Armistice Line and consists of a collection of 33 villages and hamlets that go back to 6,500 years, with around 3,000 Palestinians living there as shepherds and farmers. The region has been under the risk of forcible expulsion since 1948. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Israeli occupation authorities bombed Masafer Yatta villages and expelled some of the resident families.

As Biden’s Visit To Israel Begins, American Jews Deliver Message

Washington, D.C. - On the first day of President Biden’s visit to the Middle East, young Jews affiliated with IfNotNow Movement gathered outside the White House to deliver a message amidst President Biden’s complicity in home demolitions and the potential forced expulsions of over 1,000 Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank. Standing in front of the White House, protesters unraveled a banner that said “Biden, Stop Forced Transfer, #SaveMasaferYatta”. Biden’s trip to Israel, which began this morning, does not include engaging with communities in Masafer Yatta or any Palestinian community under threat of demolition or forced transfer paid for with U.S. tax dollars. “President Biden says that he cares about human rights for all people, but his agenda in Israel would make Donald Trump proud. His refusal to condemn the imminent forced transfer of thousands of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta is deeply disappointing.

Israeli Live-Fire Military Training In Masafer Yatta Is Ongoing

For a week, Israeli soldiers along with their guns, bulldozers, military jeeps, tanks and helicopters have been invading Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta. This is part of the live-fire military training that has started on June 21, 2022 and will last for two more weeks. The Israeli army’s military training is being carried out in the villages of Jinba, Al-Markez and Al-Majaz. The three villages are among the eight located in what Israel classifies as Firing Zone 918. On May 4, 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court issued a decision to ethnically cleanse Palestinians living in the eight villages, who number over 1000 people. According to local residents, the military training has badly affected their daily lives. Residents of the villages are no longer able to graze their herds as the military training is being carried out on their grazing land.

BDS Campaigning In Solidarity With Masafer Yatta

Thousands of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, in the area south of occupied Al-Khalil (Hebron), face the imminent threat of expulsion in what would be the largest expulsions carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime since the 1970s. We are witnessing through testimonies, images and videos shared from the ground Israel’s brutal violence and repression in Masafer Yatta since the Israeli High Court, a critical part of Israel’s apartheid system, ruled in favour of the ethnic cleansing of some 1,300 Palestinians living in eight villages there. Home demolitions and forced expulsion of Palestinian communities are the very method through which apartheid Israel entrenches its settler colonialism.
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