Thread by @BtSIsrael

We're at Supreme Court in Jerusalem, where the hearing that will decide the fate of 1,300 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills (who are contesting turning their home into a military training zone) is about to begin.
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Before we begin - if you're not familiar with the facts of the case, watch this short explainer we put together on why Masafer Yatta has become 'Firing Zone 918' and what that means for the local residents.

https://twitter.com/BtSIsrael/status/1503381628323827714

Outside the court, BtS members have joined Masafer Yatta residents and other anti-occupation activists to say loud and clear: No to forced transfer. No to occupation. #SaveMasaferYatta.

The residents are being represented by @acri_online and Attorney Shlomo Laker, who has represented them for decades now. Kudos.

@acri_online The hearing has begun. The atty representing the Minister of Defense launches an attack on the residents, saying they've disturbed the status quo by continually building illegally while the proceedings have taken place (i.e. for the last 20+ years).

@acri_online Reminder: the residents lived in Masafer Yatta since before the Firing Zone was declared. And yes, their construction has been illegal because no permits have been approved - by the Israeli authorities - for all of these years.

@acri_online Asked by the Judges if the Firing Zone is in use by the military, the Defense Ministry's atty says it's not. He's immediately corrected by an IDF officer present: yes, there was a large military drill there using artillery a year ago.

https://twitter.com/BtSIsrael/status/1356933565922086918

@acri_online The Defense Ministry's atty is asked by the Judges: are there any senior IDF officers here in the courtroom? He looks around, hesitates... and eventually says that none of them could make it 'for personal reasons'.

@acri_online The atty continues: The residents have refused every compromise offered to them. These 'compromises' mean that for large periods throughout the year, the residents would have to leave their homes. Of course they refused. Who could live that way?

@acri_online The atty was also unable to say how much of the Firing Zone is privately-owned Palestinian land. He says 30%, but he doesn't know to say for sure.

@acri_online Atty Laker (representing the residents) begins his argument: Firstly, this is an almost unprecedented case in how long its been fought in the courts (22 years).

@acri_online He tells the history of the area, the fact that these residents have lived here for generations, and that they were indeed permanent residents of the area before the declaration of the Firing Zone (despite the Defense Ministry's claims). At the height of the summer they were >

@acri_online indeed unable to live there for short periods each year because the conditions didn't allow for it, but it's ridiculous to claim that that makes them 'seasonal residents' who only came to the area for simple agricultural work, as the Defense Ministry says.

@acri_online Furthermore: The Defense Ministry's claim that the residents have been flouting the law is absurd considering the fact that by definition, in military firing zones, building permits are not granted. So of course they were forced to build without permits; they had no other choice.

@acri_online Correction: the atty currently arguing for the residents is Dan Yakir.

@acri_online Atty Yakir continues: the compromise offered to the residents is of course unacceptable, because being forced to leave their homes for long periods at a time is akin to forced transfer. No one can live like that.

@acri_online Atty Yakir also recounts that @Akevot uncovered documents showing that the decision to declare the area a Firing Zone followed a Knesset committee meeting in which then-Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon claimed that >

https://twitter.com/BtSIsrael/status/1318104498179592192

@acri_online @Akevot the area should be declared a Firing Zone in order to prevent the spread of the Palestinian residents in an area that was strategically necessary for Israel.
Soon after, Sharon became Defense Minister and the Firing Zone was indeed declared.

@acri_online @Akevot See here for more details: @Akevot akevot.org.il/en/news-item/d…

@acri_online @Akevot Yakir reminds the Court of the huge damage to the local communities that the status quo of the last 22 years has done. People live here, there are schools and family life. What is the IDF planning to do? Load them all on trucks again (as they did in '99) and throw them out?

@acri_online @Akevot Again with regards to the compromise: The IDF itself admits that the 70 days within each 6-month period that the IDF has offered the residents is only a 'pilot'. They reserve the right to extend the training periods afterwards.

@acri_online @Akevot The IDF says the Firing Zone is needed in order to train recruits to the Nahal Brigade. However, the Nahal base was only built after the FZ was declared. Moreover, the IDF can only legally expropriate land in an occupied area on security grounds if it's needed for the security >

@acri_online @Akevot of the occupied area itself. Training Nahal brigade soldiers does not fall within that definition.

@acri_online @Akevot Expropriating land in occupied territory, according to international law, can only be done if it's needed for immediate, emergency use. Turning the area into a permanent firing zone is neither 'immediate' nor 'emergency'.

@acri_online @Akevot Atty Shlomo Laker, also representing the residents, takes the stand. He says that we mustn't ignore the fact that 1.5km from the Firing Zone stands the well-developed Israeli settlement of Susya. The int'l community will take this into account if the FZ residents are evicted

@acri_online @Akevot Laker details some of the kinds of properties sold in the settlement of Susya.
On the other hand, in the Palestinian villages in the FZ, the State is saying - how dare the residents build mosques, schools etc, transforming the area from what it was like in the 1980s.

@acri_online @Akevot These Palestinian communities did indeed live in caves carved out of the rock. The State appears to be saying that it expects life for these Palestinians to stay exactly the same as it was then; that the children and grandchildren must live exactly the way their parents did.

@acri_online @Akevot So some people (hinting at the settlers) have the right to develop their area as they wish, while others (hinting at the residents) have to stay frozen in time for generations.

@acri_online @Akevot The Judge: By not accepting the compromise, the residents are forcing the Court to see this as a binary decision (hinting that not accepting the compromise will come at the residents' expense).

@acri_online @Akevot Laker continues: The Firing Zone stops the residents from being able to make use of their private land, of which there is more than 8000 dunams. The FZ isn't just about who can enter the land, but about building, since the residents are not granted permits to build there.

@acri_online @Akevot The right to private property is severely violated here. The constant demolitions are not just of houses but also water cisterns, solar panels etc, while those living 1.5km away (the settlers) develop as they wish.

@acri_online @Akevot Atty Netta Amar Schiff, also for the residents, continues: it's not clear what the State's position is on two of the villages in the FZ, Jinba and Marakez, which are documented in aerial pictures from the 1960s-70s as having many structures, as opposed to their claim >

@acri_online @Akevot that this was barren land that was used seasonally for agricultural purposes.

@acri_online @Akevot The first time this case was taken to court, the State responded that the residents hadn't brought any evidence that this was their permanent residence. So they brought the aerial pictures. The second time, they said that wasn't enough, so the residents brought the minutes of a >

@acri_online @Akevot UN meeting in which the fate of these villages were discussed (proving they must have existed). The State's response was - the fact that the villages existed doesn't prove that they were permanently populated.

@acri_online @Akevot The population survey conducted in 1967 recognized the fact that living in the caves in Masafer Yatta was possible.

@acri_online @Akevot Finally - this area is not really in use as a Firing Zone. The State itself accepts that the population is grown fivefold, and at the same time has expanded the amount of land that it wants to expropriate.

@acri_online @Akevot The Defense Ministry's atty responds:
Military training is a military necessity. Military necessity in int'l law is broadly defined. Yes, by today's standards it appears that the Nahal Brigade won't need to put the training it receives into practice. But things could change.

@acri_online @Akevot Perhaps at some point in the future, those soldiers will need to make use of the skills they learned in those training exercises in the occupied territory. No one can say at the moment that the next military campaign in the West Bank won't require infantry.

@acri_online @Akevot The Judge asks about potential compromise deals. Defense Min. Atty: 3 possible offers: 1) To divide the land geographically, so that some will be used for training and some for living. 2) To divide seasonally, meaning the residents would live there during the summer and the IDF >

@acri_online @Akevot would use it during the winter. 3) The current compromise offer - part of the time the residents would be allowed to live there, part of the time they'd be forced to leave.
(Note - all three involve forcing the residents off of their land at least part of the time)

@acri_online @Akevot All of these suggestions have been rejected by the residents.

@acri_online @Akevot He says the option of the State recognizing the land as belonging to the residents is not an option from the Ministry of Defense's point of view. The land is needed for military training.

@acri_online @Akevot He rejects the claim that the State is denying people the right to improve their lives and develop the areas they live in: Of course people have this right; the residents are welcome to do so by moving to the nearby town of Yatta.
How kind of him.

@acri_online @Akevot The Judge brings the hearing to a close, says there will be another hearing and promises to hand down a verdict (as opposed to what we've seen until now).
Atty Yakir, for the residents, asks for an interim ruling to stop the IDF from training in the area while the case continues

@acri_online @Akevot The Judge looks at the Defense Min Atty and says - you won't bomb the area in the next two months? Thanks.
It's clear that neither the Judges nor the State's atty are taking this request seriously. Complete contempt for the lives of the people living there.

@acri_online @Akevot To conclude: The Judges, the Defense Ministry officials and their attorneys will all now go home to their warm houses. For the settlers in the South Hebron Hills, life will go on; nothing will change for them. Only the residents of Masafer Yatta will continue to live with >

@acri_online @Akevot constant demolition orders, settler violence, and at any given moment - large-scale military training exercises in their villages. They'll remain frozen in time without the right to expand or develop anything.
That's what occupation looks like.