Palestinians vow to stay on disputed land
Everything here is makeshift, a result of decades of uncertainty. Homes are made from corrugated iron and plastic sheets, water is trucked in, and power is obtained from batteries or solar panels.
The lives of thousands of Palestinians in a cluster of Bedouin communities in the southern West Bank have been on hold for more than four decades, ever since the land they cultivated and lived on was declared a military firing and training zone by Israel.
Since that decision in early 1981, residents of the Masafer Yatta area have weathered demolitions, property seizures, restrictions, disruptions of food and water supplies, as well as the lingering threat of expulsion.
That threat grew significantly this week after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a long-standing expulsion order against eight of the 12 Palestinian hamlets forming Masafer Yatta – potentially leaving at least 1000 people homeless.
Some residents say they are determined to stay on the land.
The verdict came after a more than two-decade legal struggle by Palestinians to remain in their homes. Israel has argued that the residents only use the area for seasonal agriculture, and that they have rejected offers of compromise that would have given them occasional access to the land.
The Palestinians say that if implemented, the ruling opens the way for the eviction of all the 12 communities, which have a combined population of 4000 people, mostly Bedouins who rely on animal herding and a traditional form of desert agriculture.
The residents of Jinba, one the hamlets, say they have opposed any compromise because they have lived in the area long before Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War.
Issa Abu Aram was born in a cave in the rugged mountainous terrain 48 years ago, and has endured a tough life, because building is banned in the area. During winter, he and his family live in a cave. In summer, they stay in caravans near the cave.
The Palestinian leadership has condemned the Israeli Supreme Court ruling, which was handed down on Thursday – when most of Israel was shut down for the country’s Independence Day.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said the removal order ‘‘amounts to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, in violation of international law and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions’’.
Israel’s interior minister says Israel is set to advance plans for the construction of 4000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. If approved, it would be the biggest advancement of settlement plans since the Biden
Administration took office.
The White House is opposed to settlement growth because it further erodes the possibility of an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule for nearly 55 years. Masafer Yatta is in the 60% of the territory where the Palestinian Authority is prohibited from operating. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state.
Jewish settlers have established outposts in the area, which are not officially authorised by Israel but are protected by the military.
Last year, dozens of settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the area, and a 4-year-old boy was hospitalised after being struck in the head with a stone.
For now, the families say they have only one choice left: to stay and stick to their land.
‘‘I don’t have an alternative, and they cannot remove me,’’ said farmer Khalid al-Jabarin. ‘‘The entire government of Israel can’t remove me. We will not leave . . . we will not get out of here because we are the inhabitants of the land.’’
Referring to West Bank settlers who came from other countries, he said: ‘‘Why would they bring a replacement from South Africa to live in the high mountains, in our land, and replace us, and remove us? Why?’’