- jewishvoiceforpeace
- 2,400 Palestinians face imminent homelessness after yesterday’s Israeli high court ruling, which paves the way for the Israeli military to take over their land and demolish their homes. The families of Masafer Yatta have inhabited and cultivated this land for 13 generations — long before Israel and Zionism even existed.
The pretense for this colonial theft and destruction? That the Palestinians of Masafer Yatta are “illegally” living in a military “firing zone” (swipe left).
But Israel baselessly declared this “firing zone” in the 1980s, after the people of Masafer Yatta had lived there for centuries, with the explicit purpose of expelling them to colonize their land. Former prime minister Ariel Sharon brazenly discussed this ethnic-cleansing strategy in a 1981 meeting (swipe left). And Masafer Yatta is not the only Palestinian land Israel has claimed for supposed military use: today 18% of the West Bank is considered a “firing zone.”
Yesterday’s Israeli high court ruling defies international law, which prohibits both the expropriation of land for reasons that do not benefit the people living on it as well as the forced transfer of those people. But the judge in the case was himself a settler illegally living in the occupied West Bank. And Israel’s courts are not just biased; they are tools of its colonial, apartheid system that disenfranchises Palestinians to exercise inreasing control over them and their land.
Not only do the courts not abide by international law, but no foreign government holds them accountable, either. In fact, the US government gives Israel $3.8 billion per year to fund the bulldozers and other machinery that will be used to demolish homes in Masafer Yatta — as well as the soldiers that will train on top of the ethnically-cleansed village.
To #SaveMasaferYatta, keep your eyes on news and support local resistance by following @basilaladraa, @ali_awad98, and the hashtag. You can also go to savemasaferyatta.com (link in bio) to sign up for updates.
We must pressure our governments to stop the expulsion and end all funding to the Israeli military that provides the justification for, and perpetrates, it (swipe left).Edited · 2 w
