16 October | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
For the last 42 years the Israeli occupation forces have been slowly but surely grinding the region of Masafer Yatta into dust. Now, in 2022, the various injunctions, petitions, hearings and a halfhearted international condemnation have amounted to nothing. The Israeli army has successfully pushed through their application to forcibly transfer some 1,200 Palestinians to make way for a military firing zone. This is ethnic cleansing happening before our eyes.
At the gates to the valley lies the village of Khallat Al Dabaa, a well established strong community. Their lives have been made unlivable by settler attacks, deliberate police negligence or harassment, and now the military and the imminent threat of eviction. A large portion of the Masafer Yatta valley is scheduled to become a live firing range for military training, displacing and demolishing the homes of 215 Palestinian households that have lived in these hills for generations under constant threat of eviction. In Khallat Al Dabaa, 20 structures have received demolition orders and military training with live ammunition nearby has been ongoing. And over the last 6 months, demolitions have been the only certainty for the communities of Masafer Yatta.
The Aldababseh brothers Jeber, father of five, Mohammed, father of twelve, and Amer, father of four, have had their homes demolished five times each over the past four years by the Israeli occupation forces. The vital school, the generators, the water pipes and five wells were also destroyed. Water pipes now have to be hidden from the army and settlers. Jeber said to ISM: “If they demolish everything we will rebuild, we have nowhere else to go. This is our home and this will be our grave.”
In a show of defiance from the local community and the activists on the ground, The ISM, together with the families of Khallet Al Dabaa has been painting large bold clear statements on the walls of the houses. Statements asking questions such as: “Where will I sleep”, “where will they stop” and reminding the international community that this is a home like any other; this is a place where a family wants to raise children, live, thrive and grow. Every Israeli soldier who comes here for military training, or to evict and demolish the community will read these messages. On one wall in black and white it reads: “LET ME LIVE MY LIFE” this has proven to be a daily challenge here and across the West Bank. We hope this will contribute to a better appreciation of this brave people’s desperate situation.
Making a stand and saving the village of Khalat Al Dabaa is specifically essential because Israel’s brutal occupation will not stop here. The local resistance committees and the ISM activists on the ground have resolved to do everything they can to help these communities survive this ordeal. If this village goes, it paves the way for the rest of the Masafer Yatta valley and the West Bank to be erased from the map.
Mahmoud Darwish sums up why the people stay, and how they have the strength to resist.
علَى هَذِهِ الأَرْض مَا يَسْتَحِقُّ الحَياةْ
We have on this land that which makes life worth living.
This article was originally published by ISM Palestine