The Israeli military is attempting to forcibly remove some 2,800 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta in order to clear the way for further Jewish settlement. This action would amount to one of the largest mass displacements of Palestinians in decades and would constitute a war crime. In the coming weeks, the Israeli High Court will rule on whether the army, under the pretext of maintaining a live-fire training zone, may legally expel these communities, but everyone that I know here expects an adverse outcome.1
As Palestinians and their allies organize to prevent the violent evacuation of this indigenous, cave-dwelling population, I wish to share some of my recent observations from on the ground inside so-called Firing Zone 918, because I am concerned that the present intensification of Israel’s military occupation in the area may foreshadow an imminent ethnic cleansing operation.
Following the spate of deadly armed attacks against Jewish Israelis this past month, the Israeli military has been cracking down on the movement of Palestinians inside Masafer Yatta, ostensibly with the aim of stopping “illegal” crossings into Israel.
However, rather than targeting only Palestinians attempting to enter Israel, my fellow solidarity activists and I have documented the army harassing Palestinians who live and work in Masafer Yatta—in towns like Jenbah, Fakheit, and Markez—sometimes delaying them for hours on their commutes home.
One tool of obstruction that the Israeli military uses often is impromptu “flying” checkpoints.
We have also seen the military employ more lethal tactics of suppression. In one incident this paste week caught on video, an Israeli soldier shot at Palestinian laborers attempting to cross the fence:
The military is also digging trenches, some apparently on private Palestinian land, in order to keep Palestinians out.
Note that while the Israeli military is busy making life even more impossible for Palestinians living in the firing zone, Israeli settlers in the South Hebron Hills have been escalating their attacks on Palestinian persons and property.
The army and police have, as yet, failed to stop or meaningfully respond to any of these settler assaults. In fact, we frequently witness Israeli forces working in tandem with the settlers.
Throughout the past few weeks, when I have met Israeli soldiers in the firing zone, I try to speak with them. They typically refuse to respond, neither telling me their names (they are legally required to identify themselves) nor answering any of my questions (e.g., “What are you doing?” “What do you think about the situation here?” “How would you feel if soldiers detained your children’s teacher every day on the way to school?”) So, despite my best efforts, I am often left lecturing.
First, I inform the soldiers that Israel has tacitly allowed tens of thousands of undocumented Palestinian laborers to cross the Green Line every day for years, in part because the Israeli economy depends on the cheap labor of its colonized people (e.g., in the fields of agriculture and construction). I tell them that, before the present crackdown, when anyone drove from the South Hebron Hills (occupied West Bank) to Be’er Sheva (Israel) via the Metar checkpoint, he or she could sit in their car in line for the ID check, turn their head to the left, and clearly see the large, gaping hole in the fencing supposedly meant to block unauthorized Palestinian movement. You could even observe Palestinian cars parked on either side of the fence, dropping off and picking up the day laborers. Did the sophisticated Israeli surveillance apparatus not detect what any driver could see with a naked eye?2
Second, I remind the soldiers that the Green Line is not an internationally-recognized border. Indeed, the separation barrier (a.k.a. apartheid wall) does not even follow this line: over 80% of it stands inside occupied territory. And what about the daily passage of thousands of Israeli settlers across the Green Line? Why is only Palestinian movement deemed illegal?3
In sum, while it is true that Israeli forces have not herded Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta into trucks and carted them off (something that happened two decades ago), the Israeli military is evidently tightening its hold on this region. For decades, the daily reality in these parts has been settler-state violence against Palestinians aimed at forcing them from the shepherding fields of the countryside and into the nearby Palestinian city of Yatta. The present crackdown only accelerates this ongoing, protracted process of removal. I worry that, in hindsight, we will discover that this moment represented a stepping stone on the way to a more condensed and rapid ethnic cleansing operation.4
Luckily, you and I don’t have to be bystanders. We have an opportunity now to intervene before it’s too late.