The Knesset Parliamentary Group for Ending the Occupation, led by MKs @AidaTuma and @mossi_raz, is holding its first meeting today - marking 55 years of military rule over the oPt.
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@AidaTuma@mossi_raz MK @AidaTuma starts off:
Once, the occupation was considered to be temporary. Today it appears that many around the world have gotten used to the horrors of occupation and siege. In order to perpetuate it and turn it into a done deal, Israel is operating an Apartheid regime.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz > Even the horrific pictures from Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral a few weeks ago didn't make people think about what's going on here. It immediately turned into a debate about who went into the hospital when. Why is it so difficult to say that there's a moral problem here?
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz MK @mossi_raz: occupation is a situation in which a foreign military rules over a civilian population. This situation leads to human rights abuses, resistance, violence and counter-violence.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz Occupation is the child who can't fall asleep for fear that soldiers will burst in to make an arrest. Occupation is the restriction of individual rights, of the right to movement and so on. And that's why we have to bring this situation to an end.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz Our own @origivati speaks about 'Blue Wolf', the facial recognition technology used by soldiers to take pictures of random Palestinians to enter them into a database. The units serving in the oPt are made to compete for prizes to take as many pictures as possible.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati Ori says that his commander told him, when he was serving as a tank commander in the oPt, that the point of their presence their was to make sure the Palestinians "wouldn't be able to lift their heads." By making the Palestinians constantly feel the IDF's presence, the logic is >
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati that they will be afraid to do anything at all that could raise the IDF's suspicion. That's how Palestinians have been living their lives for 55 years now. And it's all in order to further entrench the occupation. That's why we work to expose this reality and bring it to an end.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati Next up: Yahel Gazit, an Israeli volunteer with #SaveMasaferYatta who lives w/ the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta as part of a solidarity project. She wrote her speech together with @Ali_awad1998, a local activist who's fighting to save his community from mass eviction. >
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati@Ali_awad1998 She says: The Supreme Court of Israel ruled to evict 1,300+ residents from the area. I sit here today and wonder if there's anyone at all who believes that this move is really about creating a military training zone, when right next door settlements are built without any problems
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati@Ali_awad1998 Yahel continues: we're about to turn 1300 people into refugees. Why doesn't this bother anyone? Why can't we let these simple people just tend to their sheep? To live with some self-respect? Let's not repeat the Nakba in 2022.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati@Ali_awad1998@lizzadwoskin@washingtonpost@YeshDin These outposts are normally inhabited by a single couple or family, are not given permits by the State to be there, yet the State supports their existence de facto by letting them stay there and giving them access to funding, infrastructure and military protection.
@AidaTuma@mossi_raz@origivati@Ali_awad1998@lizzadwoskin@washingtonpost@YeshDin E.g. Shabtai from Havat Avraham in the S Hebron Hills states openly that he controls 9000 dunams, 6x more than he was given. "Wherever we set foot w/ our sheep is ours." Yesh Din documented several violent attacks by settlers from this outpost. This model exists all over the oPt.
Friday morning, a mob of settlers descends on the small village of Jinba in Masafer Yatta, injuring 5 Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy and a 64-year-old man. The IDF quickly responded - arresting over 20 Palestinians.
From there, it got worse 🧵
Early Saturday morning, over 140 Israelis, soldiers and settlers alike, raided Jinba. They broke TVs, refrigerators, and toilets, ripped out faucets, and dumped large amounts of food onto the ground, preventing them from eating before the day’s fast.
The IDF excuse? “Looking for weapons.” No mention of finding any. And it doesn’t seem to matter. The residents have for years been suffering from IDF raids. In 2012, soldiers turned Jinba “upside down” while failing to find an alleged headquarters for smuggling “infiltrators.”
The assault on Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal this week was horrifying, but it wasn’t a rarity. Similar assaults have become routine in Masafer Yatta. There have been at least 11 serious assaults by settlers on just the small village of Susiya in 2025 alone (!)
Let’s dive deeper 🧵
Last week, another partner of ours, @btselem researcher Naser Nawaj’ah, was also assaulted in Susiya. Police were seen on video letting the assailants escape. At least one assailant was also identified by activists on Monday night as one of the settlers who assaulted Hamdan.
In this video from last August, a settler was seen telling Hamdan he’d like to take him to the infamous Sde Teiman detention facility, for some “rape by the will of god.” Back then, Hamdan’s film hadn’t yet won an Oscar, so this event didn’t make the news
Last night, over 400 Palestinians were reportedly killed by IDF airstrikes. Many were civilians. Children, men, women - gone. A one-sided violation to bury the ceasefire deal.
Nothing justifies this. The usual excuse of “defeating Hamas” is remarkably unconvincing. Here’s why 🧵
First of all, Hamas’ manpower has reportedly bounced back to over 25,000 combatants, around the same as was estimated before October 7th. 15 months of all-out destruction, countless thousands of innocent deaths written off as “collateral damage” - but our government survived.
We say this since Netanyahu’s govt is in danger of dissolving. To stabilize his chances at political survival, he needed far-right messianic settler Itamar Ben-Gvir back in his coalition. And one of Ben Gvir’s conditions for this return was a renewal of fighting in Gaza.
Those of us who served in the oPt know the reality in the South Hebron Hills. Last night, it was exposed to the whole world on the big screen—yet remains hidden and censored from those who live right next door to it and are extremely affected by it: Israelis.
In Israel, there is a deep fear of confronting this reality. Soldiers are sent to maintain the occupation, then silenced when they speak out about what they did. They are not allowed to talk about the immorality, violence, or oppression. But burying the truth doesn’t erase it.
Thanks to people like @basel_adra , @yuval_abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal, more and more eyes are being opened to this reality. Israelis are beginning to understand—if we want a different future for this land, we have no choice but to face the truth. Even when it hurts.
Last Friday, we set out with five buses carrying nearly 200 Israelis and foreigners as part of a routine tour to Hebron. But the army and police worked together to prevent us from seeing the reality for ourselves &🧵
A. We were denied entry for political reasons. While the army and police waved the magic wand of “security concerns” at us, settlers were free to come and go as they like. Those who joined us saw something fundamental about the occupation: it’s not about security.
B. As Israelis, we can never fully grasp the impact of these tactics on Palestinians—violence, restrictions, arbitrary arrests. If this is how citizens and tourists are treated, it’s terrifying to imagine what Palestinians endure every day across the occupied territories.
Today, in the West Bank, tying your shoes outside could be a death sentence.
The IDF has recently admitted multiple times to “mistakenly” killing innocent civilians in the West Bank. But these killings can be traced back to specific orders, all of which were imported from Gaza🧵
Central Command Chief Maj-Gen Avi Bluth recently decided to make a change to the IDF’s rules of engagement in the West Bank - issuing a shoot-to-kill order for anyone who “messes with the ground,” soldiers told @yanivkub of @haaretzcom. This had dire and immediate consequences.
Last week, a 7-year-old boy died of his wounds, 10 days after being shot by IDF forces, who said he was “handling something on the ground.” The IDF gave the same excuse last month after a drone strike killed the Bsharat cousins - ages 8, 10 and 21.