Masafer Yatta communities Israel is trying to drive out

1 January 2013, updated 12 May 2022

Residents of Khirbet al-Markez in Masafer Yatta. Photo by Oren Ziv, activestills

In the early 1980s, the Israeli military declared an area of about 30,000 dunams [3,000 hectares] in the South Hebron Hills known as Masafer Yatta a restricted military zone, and dubbed it 'Firing Zone 918'. At the time, dozens of Palestinian families had been living in the area for years, since before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. They lived in 12 small villages, in natural or man-made caves, some all year round and others only seasonally, and made a living as farmers and shepherds.

After their home was declared a closed military zone, the families continued to lead their lives mostly undisturbed. Although the military reached various arrangements with them that ostensibly limited their access to the land, these arrangements were barely implemented. The residents continued to work their land and graze their flocks without any major interference.

Jabriyeh Hamamdeh and two of her children in the tent they live in. Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills.org, 30 Jan. 2013.

However, in October and November 1999, the military expelled all 700 or so residents of these communities on the official grounds that they were “illegally living in a firing zone”. This flimsy argument blatantly ignored the fact that the families had been living in the area for many years, with the full knowledge of Israeli authorities.

Following the expulsion, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Attorney Shlomo Lecker filed petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) on behalf of 200 families from Masafer Yatta. In March 2000, the HCJ issued an interim injunction permitting the villagers to return to their homes and cultivate their land pending a ruling in the case. The court encouraged the parties to hold an arbitration process, which was led by the former head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General (res.) Dov Zadka. During the arbitration, Israel offered to move the villagers to a different, far smaller area south of the town of Yatta. The villagers rejected the offer and the process ended in early 2005.

The villagers’ petitions remained open for years and it was only on 19 July 2012, after repeatedly requesting deferrals, that Israel submitted its updated position to the HCJ. In its statement, the state announced its intention to demolish eight of the 12 communities inside the firing zone, which were home to more than 1,000 people at the time (Khirbet al-Fakhit, hirbet al-Halawah, Khirbet al-Majaz, Khirbet al-Markez, Khirbet a-Safai al-Foqa, Khirbet a-Safai a-Tahta, Khirbet a-Taban, Khirbet Jenbah, Khirbet Khilet a-Dabe'). The state declared that it would allow the residents to continue working their land inside the firing zone on weekends, on Jewish holidays and in two non-consecutive months a year. In view of that statement, the HCJ dismissed the petitions, yet allowed the families to file new petitions to address the state's position.

מפת שטח אש 918 במסאפר יטא, 2022. הקליהו להגדלה — Click on image to enlarge map

In January 2013, ACRI and Att. Lecker filed new petitions on behalf of the residents. Again, the HCJ issued an interim injunction forbidding the state to expel the residents. In the last hearing in these petitions, on 10 August 2020, the state repeated the claim it had made over the years, that the petitioners had not been permanent residents of the area when it was declared a “firing zone”, and therefore had no right to continue living in their homes. It further argued that the communities were taking advantage of the interim injunction: people not included in the injunction were moving into the area and residents were building without permits. The state again proposed a “compromise” that would allow residents to live in their homes for two months a year with prior coordination, or on weekends and Jewish holidays when the military does not train in the area. The petitioners rejected the proposal.

Fatmeh Abu Sabha at the entrance to a cave used as a sheep-pen. Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills.org, 30 Jan. 2013.

While the interim injunction, which remained in place over the years, prohibited Israel from expelling the residents, the lengthy proceedings effectively put their lives on hold for more than 20 years. They continued to dwell in their homes and work their land, while living under constant threat of demolition, expulsion and dispossession. At the same time, Israel denied them any possibility of construction or development. Faced with no other choice, residents built homes without permits, as well as infrastructure to serve their daily needs, such as power and water systems.

The Civil Administration responded by issuing demolition orders and in some cases, demolished the structures and confiscated the infrastructure. Since 2006, B'Tselem has documented the demolition of 66 residential structures in these communities, which were home to 553 people, 175 of them minors. It has also documented the demolition of 32 non-residential structures in these communities since early 2012.

In early May 2022, the HCJ rejected the petitions, after accepting each and every one of the state’s arguments. Cherry-picking facts and relying on an absurd legal interpretation, the court made it clear there was no crime it would not find a way to sanction. The justices held that the petitions must be rejected outright, as they were filed many years after the firing zone was declared and as the petitioners came to court “with absolutely unclean hands”, having built structures without permits over the years. The justices also held that regarding the matter itself, the petition should be rejected as, in their opinion, the military commander has the power to declare closed military zones in the occupied territory that supersedes the provisions of international law. Finally, the justices held that the petitioners were not “permanent residents” of the area before it was declared a firing zone and rejected the petition. In doing so, they allowed the state to immediately expel the residents and destroy their communities.

The State of Israel cites formal arguments such as “living in a firing zone” and “violating planning and building laws” to justify its policy in Masafer Yatta. These are false claims, meant to conceal Israel’s aspirations to take over the land for its own purposes and use it to benefit the Jewish population only.

The village of Khirbet Jenbah in Masafer Yatta. Photo by Oren Ziv, Activestills, 2013

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Khirbet Susiya, village under threat of demolition. Photo: Ann Pack, Activestills.org, 15 June 2012

The South Hebron Hills

Khirbet Susiya – a village under threat of demolition

The Palestinian village of Khirbet Susiya has existed in the South Hebron Hills at least since the 1830s. Its residents have traditionally earned a living from shepherding and growing olive trees. In 1983, the Israeli settlement of Susiya was established near the village, on Palestinian land that had been declared state land by Israel. In 1986, about 25 families were living in Khirbet Susiya, in caves and structures. That year, the Civil Administration declared the village’s land an “archeological site”; the land was confiscated “for public purposes” and the Israeli military expelled its residents from their homes. Having no other option, the families relocated to other caves in the area and to flimsy wood frame shelters and tents they erected on agricultural land a few hundred meters southeast of the original village and the archeological site. The military expelled the residents again several times, most recently in July 2001, shortly after Palestinians killed Israeli Yair Har Sinai, a resident of the Susiya settlement. During the expulsion, carried out without warning, soldiers destroyed residents’ property, demolished their caves and blocked up water cisterns. In September 2001, further to a petition by the residents to Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) filed by Attorney Shlomo Lecker, the HCJ issued an interim order that prohibited further destruction pending a ruling on the petition. Ancient village of Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 17 November 2010. Photo: Yoav Gross, B’Tselem. In the following years, pending a ruling, the residents had to deal with an impossible reality. On the one hand, they had to erect homes and structures for their livestock after the military destroyed their previous ones; on the other hand, the Civil Administration refused to prepare a master plan for the village that would enable its residents to build homes legally and connect to the water and power grids, and rejected residents' applications for building permits. The people of Khirbet Susiya were left no choice but to build temporary buildings and residential tents. The Civil Administration then issued demolition orders for the new structures which, they alleged, were not covered by the interim order. In June 2007, the HCJ decided to vacate the petition, without making a ruling. The Civil Administration continued to issue demolition orders for dozens of structures in Khirbet Susiya. Over the years, the residents filed further petitions in an attempt to prevent the demolitions and plan the village legally, but the justices refused to prohibit the demolition. In 2011 the Civil Administration demolished 10 residential structures in the village, six structures used for making a livelihood and four wells. Planning attempts by villagers blocked Currently about 250 people live in Khirbet Susiya on a regular basis, and some 100 others live in it for part of the year, as their livelihood is seasonal. In late 2012, Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights submitted a master plan for the village to the Civil Administration, on behalf of the residents. In January 2013, the state notified the HCJ that the Civil Administration was evaluating the plan and that, until a decision was reached, demolition orders for that land would not be carried out. In October 2013 the Sub-Committee for Planning and Licensing of the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council rejected the proposed master plan. Among its reasons for rejecting the plan, which together conveyed a patronizing and unprofessional approach, the Civil Administration argued that the significant scattering of the small villages – including Susiya – in the greater Yatta area results in such high expenses for the provision of education, welfare, religion and health services that the funds of the town of Yatta are insufficient to adequately provide them. This is remarkable given that the Civil Administration itself supports the legalization of dozens of tiny illegal settler outposts scattered throughout the West Bank, and has refused to connect the Palestinian village to water and power supplies. Demolition of residential tent and shack, Khirbet Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 24 November 2011. Photo: Nasser Nawaj'ah, B'Tselem. The Civil Administration representatives further argued that authorizing the plan would perpetuate the village’s existing social fabric based on clan kinship, thereby barring individuals, and especially Palestinian women, from enjoying the benefits urban life has to offer, such as social mobility skills, job opportunities and cultural and educational empowerment: The structure of urban life means meeting new people, bringing people closer to one another; it multiplies opportunities and broadens the horizons of each and every person within his family, his tribe, and society at large. Therefore, we see the current plan as yet another attempt to keep a poor, downtrodden population from advancing; from choosing between partial income and other resources; it is an attempt to prevent the Palestinian woman from breaking the cycle of poverty and depriving her of educational and professional opportunities. Similarly, by sentencing the Palestinian child to life in a small, stultified village with no means for development, the plan keeps the child from being aware of all the opportunities available to any other person. It is our recommendation that the plan be rejected out of hand. The Civil Administration recommended that the people of Susiya make an alternative plan for a location closer to the town of Yatta. As Susiya lies mere kilometers from Yatta, which is in Area A, the recommendation effectively means transferring the residents of Susiya out of Area C. In February 2014, Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights petitioned the HCJ, arguing that the Sub-Committee for Planning and Licensing had made an unreasonable decision in rejecting the master plan. The petitioners requested that the HCJ issue an interim order preventing the authorities from demolishing the village pending a ruling on the petition. In late March 2015, the state submitted its response, requesting the court reject the petition, claiming there was no justification for intervening in a justified decision by the planning institutions to reject the plan. In their response, the representatives of the state noted that the villagers have continued to build structures illegally. In early May 2015, Justice Sohlberg struck the residents’ request on the grounds that illegal construction had continued in the village after the petition was filed, actions that he termed “taking the law into their own hands”. Justice Sohlberg added that “the Court has noted the willingness of the authorities in the area to work towards examining promotion of an alternative planning cluster”. Talks between the state and Khirbet Susiya then began, and were underway until suspended by the state. On 1 August 2016, at a court session of Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ), counsel for the state said the talks were halted because the new Minister of Defense had yet to formulate his position on the matter. The HCJ gave the state two weeks to formulate its position. Justices Naor, Barak-Erez and Hayut declined to issue orders that the state not demolish the homes of Susiya residents pending formulation of the position. The residents were thus left in a state of uncertainty as to their future and at the mercy of Israeli authorities. Since the residents of Khirbet Susiya filed their last petition in 2014, the state has announced its intention to demolish several structures built in the village after the petition was filed – including structures renovated after they were damaged in a storm and a medical clinic that serves the entire village. On 1 February 2018, the President of the Supreme Court decided that the state could demolish seven structures in the village, which serve 42 people – about half of them children, and some of them ill persons – immediately. The state has been required to submit its position on the village’s master plan by 7 May 2018. Palestinian resident of the village of Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 15 June 2012. Photo: Anne Paq, Activestills.org. Settler takeover of Susiya land During 2001 and 2002, Israeli settlers established a number of illegal outposts on some of the land that in the past had served the Palestinian residents. Furthermore, since the demolition of Khirbet Susiya in 2001, settlers from Susiya and its outposts have prevented continuous access by villagers to about 300 hectares of land around the settlement, including 23 water cisterns. Access was prevented by use of threats and violence, including vandalizing pastures, fields, trees and cisterns, and harassing shepherds. The settlers exploit the inability of the Palestinian residents to reach their land in order to take over some of it. In the summer of 2010 they cultivated about 40 hectares, which is approximately 15 percent of the land area to which they denied Palestinians access. When police files were opened in response to complaints lodged by the Palestinians for this damage, most were closed without effect. Based on follow-ups Rabbis for Human Rights have carried out since 2007, nearly all 126 complaints to the police in Hebron made by Khirbet Susiya residents - alleging attacks, threats, incursions and damage to property by settlers - were closed without filing any charges; three complaints are still being investigated. From 2004 through 2012, B’Tselem monitored 15 complaints to the police regarding settler violence against Khirbet Susiya residents, including physical assault, setting fire to tent dwellings and belongings, threats, cutting down olive trees, stealing crops and other property damage. In 12 of the 15 cases, the investigation was closed on grounds of insufficient evidence or offender unknown. In August 2010, 55 of the village’s Rabbis for Human Rights filed an HCJ petition on behalf of the residents, seeking to be allowed, inter alia, daily access to their land. In response to the petition, the state notified the HCJ in October 2010 that the military and the Civil Administration intended to map the ownership of land in the area and then, accordingly, instruct the forces in the field as to how to deal with the need to allow access to the agricultural plots. Up until mid-May 2013, the military had issued only four orders, barring settler access to an area of 41.7 hectares – only about 13 percent of the land to which Palestinian residents had been denied access – and, in practice, reversed only one incursion by settlers, removing them from a plot the size of about one-third of one hectare (3.5 dunams). The prevention of access to some 87 percent of the area continues. On 2 February 2014 the HCJ vacated the residents’ petition on prevention of access and incursions made into their lands, on the grounds that the petition is non-specific and encompasses separate concerns of ten different families. In their ruling, the justices did address the military commander’s obligation to safeguard personal property and prevent incursions, yet refrained from ruling on the matter. They recommended that each family file an independent petition.

19 August 2012

The community school destroyed by settlers. Photo: Omri Eran Vardi, 16 Dec. 2023

The South Hebron Hills

Expulsion of Khirbet Zanutah community

In October 2023, the community was home to 27 families, numbering 250 people in total, including some 100 minors. After the war broke out on 7 October 2023, the residents suffered threats and harassment by armed settlers, and sometimes by soldiers who ordered them to leave. Armed settlers repeatedly arrived in cars or ATVs and threatened to hurt residents unless they left. On 12 October, 10 armed settlers arrived in two cars at three homes in the community, hit residents, including with firearms, threatened them, smashed solar panels, destroyed a car door and then left. On 23 October, two settlers arrived at the Samamrah family’s home, pushed the mother, Hanaa Abu al-Kabash, drained two water tanks and left. On 24 October, settlers arrived again, attacked residents with stones, smashed solar panels and windows in one home, and drained water tanks. On 25 October, some of the residents left the community. On 27 October, four settlers arrived in a car, harassed residents who were sitting outside their home, ordered them to stop filming the incident and threw a stun grenade at them. The residents were forced to go back inside. Following this attack, the rest of the residents decided to leave and by the end of October, no one was left. On 4 December 2023, an Israeli activist arrived at the site where the community lived with foreign journalists. They discovered settlers had destroyed 10 residential structures, an agricultural structure and the school. BackgroundThe residents of Khirbet Zanutah, a community that lay in the southwestern Hebron Hills, made their living as shepherds. For several generations, they lived in naturally formed caves to which they added stone entrances. During the 1980s they began building stone houses and temporary structures. There is an archeological site in the village and an ancient mosque that have been marked as such during the British mandate era. In 2007 the Civil Administration issued demolition orders for most of the village structures for having been built without permits. However, no master plan was ever drawn up for this village, so there was no plan on which building permits could be sought. The Civil Administration justified the absence of a plan, arguing that the village was too small to have a master plan prepared for it – and that the distance from the village to the nearest town, a-Dhahiriya, is too great.In November 2007, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of the villagers, submitting the villagers’ objections to the demolition orders issued by the Civil Administration for 22 structures in the village, which include residences, sheep pens and a donkey shed. The court issued an interim injunction prohibiting implementation of the demolition orders. In May 2012, at the request of ACRI, the interim injunction was expanded to include other demolition orders issued to six residences, three cisterns and two sheep-pens in the village.Palestinian women, Khirbet Zanutah, South Hebron Hills, 3 May 2012. Photo: B'Tselem.On 30 July 2012 the petition was heard. The justices instructed the state representatives to present an alternative solution for the village residents and to advise the court within 30 days whether the state intends to submit a plan that would enable and regulate construction in the village.In its response, finally filed in late 2013, the state proposed that the petitioners submit a plan to relocate the village to Area A, near the town of a-Dhahiriya. From 2014 to 2017, the court held several hearings in which the state repeatedly emphasized that it has no intention of allowing the village to remain in its current location. In a hearing held in early 2017, the state announced that it is willing, at present, to hold back from implementing the demolition orders issued for the structures covered by the petition, as it is formulating new planning criteria that may also affect the village. The state asked the court to strike the residents’ petition and, despite the petitioners’ objections, the court granted the motion and dismissed the petition. The judges stated that the existing demolition orders for Khirbet Zanutah would not be carried out until the state finishes formulating its criteria. The court prohibited the villagers from erecting any new structures and ordered the state to give the petitioners 30 days notice, should it decide to implement any demolition orders in the future. As Khirbet Zanutah does not receive educational services, the villagers have had to build a primary school with financing by a humanitarian aid organization, despite the court order against new construction. The school was completed on 25 March 2018. On 9 April, the Civil Administration demolished the school, which had 33 students ranging from first to sixth grade.

1 January 2013

Agriculture

Expel and Exploit

The report B’Tselem published today shows how Israel has been taking over Palestinian rural space, fragmenting it, dispossessing its residents of land and water, and handing over these areas to settlers. The process is illustrated through a case study of three villages in the Nablus District - ‘Azmut, Deir al-Hatab and Salem - telling what these communities have undergone since Israel established the Elon Moreh settlement nearby. Through this case study, the report illustrates a broader policy Israel has been implementing throughout the West Bank for decades, and in which the settlers play a key role.

5 December 2016