In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks to Francesca Albanese — international legal expert and the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 — on ongoing and escalating actions by Israel to forcibly eject more than 1200 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank region known as Masafer Yatta, located in the South Hebron Hills.
Recorded January 16, 2023 | Watch on YouTube
Resources Related to this Podcast
Masafer Yatta
- FMEP resources on Masafer Yatta (individual program pages contain many relevant resources)
- +972 Magazine: focus on Masafer Yatta; Firing Zone 918 archive; South Hebron Hills archive
- Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI): explainer, “Prevent Expulsion of Palestinians from Hebron Hills”; info sheet, “The 12 Villages of Firing Zone 918 in the South Hebron Hills”
- B’Tselem: all resources on the South Hebron Hills; letter to the ICC urging “preventative intervention” to prevent the war crime of forcible population transfer in Firing Zone 918: B’Tselem urgent appeal to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: stop Israel from committing a war crime in South Hebron Hills; Report — Firing Zone 918; map of the South Hebron Hills which shows the Firing Zone
- Akevot: “Document exposed by Akevot: Ariel Sharon instructed IDF to create training zone to displace Palestinians”
- Al Haq: Submission to the UN Human Rights Council 10/6/22, 1,200 Palestinians Are at Imminent Risk of Forcible Transfer in Masafer Yatta; “Virtual Field Visit: Firing Zone 918”
- Youth of Sumud on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
- Save Masafer Yatta
- Norwegian Refugee Council: Helping Palestinians stand up to the forces of displacement
- “Portraits of Resistance in Masafer Yatta,” published in Jewish Currents with an introduction from Maya Rosen
UN & Masafer Yatta
- UN/OHCHR 8/2/22: Israel: Criminalisation and harassment of human rights defenders in Masafer Yatta must end, say UN experts
- 6/23/22: Masafer Yatta Palestinians at Increased Risk Since Court Ruling – Humanitarian Coordinator Statement (Yvonne Helle, the Humanitarian Coordinator)
- UN/OHCHR 5/16/22: UN experts alarmed by Israel High Court ruling on Masafer Yatta and risk of imminent forcible transfer of Palestinians
- 5/5/22: Statement by United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings on Masafer Yatta
FMEP Podcasts & Webinars
- 10/29/22: Threats, Attacks, and Steadfastness in Masafer Yatta, ft. FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin in conversation with Basil al-Adraa (journalist & activist)
- 7/4/22: “The people are devastated”: Demolitions, Harassment, and Live Fire IDF Training in Masafer Yatta, ft. Ali Awad (writer & activist from Tuba, Masafer Yatta) in conversation with Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP)
- 6/20/22: “It’s our responsibility to turn on the light”: Masafer Yatta, Apartheid, and Youth Activism, ft. Sameeha Hureini (activist/university student from A-Twani village in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills) in conversation with FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin
- 3/9/22: Israeli Apartheid, the Supreme Court, and Land Confiscation: The Case of Masafer Yatta, ft. Featuring Ali Awad (writer & activist from Tuba, Masafer Yatta) and Maya Rosen (Jerusalem-based activist) with Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP)
- 1/12/22: “We don’t have another place to go:” Dispossession, Settler Violence, & Resistance in Masafer Yatta, ft. FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin and activist/author Ali Awad
- 12/9/21: Israeli Government Escalates Pressure on Israelis Who Stand in Solidarity with Palestinians, ft. FMEP’s Lara Friedman speaks with Oriel Eisner (an American-Israeli activist & organizer with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence) and Maya Eshel (American-Israel activist currently engaged in daily solidarity work in the South Hebron Hills)
Settler & IDF Violence in the South Hebron Hills
- B’tselem – timeline of settler attacks, Hebron District
- +972’s archive of reporting on Masafer Yatta, mostly by residents of Masafer Yatta
- Ali Awad’s article on settler threats & violence against schoolchildren from Tuba who go to school in A’Twani: For 17 Years, Stone-throwing Settlers Have Terrorized Palestinian Children. I Was One of Them
- Al Jazeera: Palestinians in West Bank’s Masafer Yatta decry settler attacks
On Israel’s use of Firing Zones to seize West Bank land
- Kerem Navot: A Locked Garden: Declaration of Closed Areas in the West Bank
- UN/OCHA on the humanitarian impact of firing zones
- Al Jazeera: Life in a Jordan Valley firing zone
- Maan Development Center: Moving Nowhere: Firing Zones and Forcible Transfer in the Jordan Valley
- Middle East Monitor: Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know about Israel’s ‘Firing Zones’ in the West Bank
- Defense for Children International-Palestine: When Home became a military firing zone
- Al Monitor: Israel displaces 11 Palestinian families in Jordan Valley” – due to military drills
- Times of Israel: Israel again tears down contested Palestinian hamlet in Jordan Valley