What's going on in Masafer Yatta ?

Masafer Yatta is a hilly region, south of el-Khalil (Hebron) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. (map below)

I found myself there because of the dramatic, ongoing violations of human rights . I would have stayed longer, if I could. I would have like to have studied the farming techniques used to survive in these apparently arid landscapes, and got into the how-and-why people are continuing to make and eat their own, traditional food in this globalised world where pot-noodle has become a staple. But, as so often happens, the Occupation takes center stage.

Masafer Yatta has been declared a firing zone by the army of occupation. Around 2000 civilians will be forcibly removed from the area, and replaced by Zionist settlers. Measured by the numbers of people affected, and by the size of the area of land to be annexed, this is one of the Israeli authorities' single biggest acts of "ethnic cleansing" . It is, of course, a war crime.

The local population has been resisting the takeover of its lands and the destruction of its livelihood for 40 years. The annexation is a two-pronged onslaught: on the one hand, the physical and legal attacks by the Israeli state and its military; on the other, the terrorist assaults of the lawless settlers.

Media and awareness campaigns have been organised : #saveMasaferYatta #defendMasaferYatta.

Please visit : masafer-yatta.org

Local journalists have documented events:

twitter.com/MohammadHuraini

www.972mag.com/shepherds-masafer-yatta-expulsion-army/

Israeli and international groups and individuals stand in solidarity with the affected people, using the principles of unarmed civilian protection. The Israeli activists use their privilege to film and resist the army's actions, when I was in Tuwani, they were doing the school run regularly too. Traditionally, the forces of occupation have been loth to beat up fellow Israelis, however, with Ben Gvir's gang in power, this might be changing.

One organisation which maintains a long-term presence in Tuwani is a faith-based group: "Operation Dove". I probably wouldn't actually have met these people, if it hadn't been for the urgent need for coffee felt by one of my mates one evening after dinner, just before I was about to leave. The Operation Dove people are Italians, they have a couple of rooms close to where we were staying: coffee would be available! Friendly and welcoming, they happily made coffee. Better still, we had a long and fascinating conversation with the team, amongst which was a guy who has been working full time on Palestinian issues for 20 years, who has lived and worked in Gaza, speaks Arabic and has clear and insightful opinions supported by strong morals. Glad to have met him!

My wee stories here are about the lives of the indigenous farmers of the villages of Tuba, Tuwani and Khallet ad-Dabea. These villages might soon be razed and abandoned.

The authors of this ethnic cleansing, this #ongoingNakba, are aided and abetted by the US, the UK and Europe. The first step in stopping our complicity in this crime is acknowledging what is really happening.

We cannot claim we didn't know.