Thread by @YehudaShaul

On May 4, the Israeli supreme court greenlighted what could be the greatest displacement of Palestinians in the OPT since the early 70s.
THREAD
#SaveMasaferYatta
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By upholding the declaration of parts of Masafer Yatta (South Hebron Hills) as Firing Zone 918, the court has allowed the expulsion of over 1000 Pals from 8 villages in the area, while hundreds more in 6 other villages are also threatened.
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Even if the whole expulsion doesn’t happen immediately, the court’s ruling will no doubt hasten the execution of over 450 demolition orders against Pal structures in the area. The process already began on May 11 with the demolition of 19 structures. Thanks @KNavot for maps
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The ruling judge, a settler himself, said there were “no signs” of residency in Masafer Yatta before 1980 when FZ 918 was declared. Thus the inhabitants are deemed invaders of the area, with aerial photos showing a “building boom” in the 90s and especially from 2000 onwards.
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So let’s help our settler judge by going through the submitted evidence and pointing out the signs of residency in Masafer Yatta.
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The village of Jiba (one of the 8 villages). Already in the 1930s, Dr Natan Shalem describes in his book, The Judean Desert, how Jinba’s various archaeological findings confirm that people continued living in the village after ancient times.
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Thanks to @BimkomPlanners, here is a 1945 aerial photo of Jinba, showing 16 buildings in the village as well as terraces and intensive agricultural cultivation.
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Note the Jordanian complaint to the UN Security Council in 1966 after IDF troops invaded Jinba and destroyed 15 homes. By 1966, the village of Jinba must have been quite developed.
haaretz.com/israel-news/.p…
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From these aerial photos of 1967, you can see the village of Jinba as well as Hallwah and Mirkaz - 3 of the 8 villages.
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Let’s return to Jinba. Look at these two structures standing above ground. The aerial photos show how both structures existed in 1945… and 1967 (after surviving the Israeli demolition in 66)…. and 1976… and 1980… and 1982.
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Aerial photos from 1967 also show the existence of a-Safai (al-Foaqa and a-Tahta) - another one of the 8 villages. I could continue down this road for each of the 8, but I'm only allowed so many tweets in a thread.
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Aerial photos show how Tuba, one of the 6 villages also threatened by the declaration of FZ 918, already existed in 1945 and naturally developed from 1 to 3 clusters as the families of the village grew before the declaration.
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Aerial photos show another one of the 6 villages, Ar Rakeez, where in Jan 2021, Haron Abu Aram was shot and left paralyzed by IDF soldiers as he protested against the confiscation of his neighbor’s generator.
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Across all these aerial photos, there are clear signs of contiguous Palestinian presence and residency in Masafer Yatta. The Israeli supreme court judges are blind to the facts.
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The judge accuses Pals of “abusing” the interim junction given 20 years ago to prohibit either party from changing reality in their favor. The reason for the accusation: expanding construction (as if Pals can live without developing while their families continue to grow).
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But look at what the Israeli authorities were doing in the meantime. Between 2001 - 2013, almost 3000 dunams were redefined as State land (by the blue line team of ICA) and earmarked for settlements and outposts, changing the reality in the State’s favor.
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Keep in mind only 18% of FZ 918 is declared State land (blue in the aerial photo). The other 82% is Pal land, 12,000 dunams of which are officially recognised by IL as privately-owned Pal land - this makes the declaration of FZ 918 even more illegal by international law.
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The State's argument that failure to allow army training in the area would “significantly impair training efficiency, involve higher financial costs and translate into costly training time,” is not an immediate security need that justifies takeover of private land under IHL.
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Firing Zones make up 18% of the West Bank and most of them are not even in use (@KNavot), but as Israel beefs up the battle over Area C, training grounds serve as a great mechanism to displace Palestinians. haaretz.com/.premium-live-…
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Thanks to the work of @Akevot, we know that FZ 918 was promoted by Sharon to prevent “the spreading of the Arab villagers on the mountainside toward the desert.”
haaretz.com/israel-news/.p…
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Masafer Yatta is included in one of the five settlement Super Zones (Israel’s master plan for settlements in the West Bank from 1997) that Israel was in the process of taking over while pretending to engage in a peace process towards a Two-State solution.
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The reason for Israel designating the South Hebron Hills for future annexation is that it "forms a buffer between the Bedouin population of the South Hebron Hills and the Bedouin population of the Arad Valley and the Beer Sheva Valley."
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By displacing the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta, and simultaneously expanding the settlements and outposts in that area, Israel is achieving its strategic goal. (See the process in the aerial photos).
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So the supreme court’s ruling on Masafer Yatta is just the old story of displacing Palestinians: removing them and taking their land → expanding settlements and outposts → solidifying Israel’s permanent control over the West Bank.
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END