Israeli Apartheid, the Supreme Court, and Land Confiscation: The Case of Masafer Yatta 

Resource

Israeli Apartheid, the Supreme Court, and Land Confiscation: The Case of Masafer Yatta 

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

featuring Ali Awad (writer & activist from Tuba, Masafer Yatta) and Maya Rosen (Jerusalem-based activist) with Dr. Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP)

Listen to this conversation as a podcast

On March 15, 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court is expected to render a decision on whether the state of Israel will be permitted to carry out a large expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank. The Palestinians in question live in an area of the South Hebron Hills called Masafer Yatta, residing for many generations in small, shepherding-based villages. In the early 1980s, in violation of international law, the IDF declared the area a firing zone (“Firing Zone 918”) — an action viewed by experts as taken with the clear Israeli objective  of displacing the Palestinian residents of the area and taking control of the land. Consistent with that analysis, for decades, Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta have faced constant threat of expulsion, home demolitions, confiscation of their property, harassment and violence at the hands of both the Israeli army and Israeli settlers. 

Ali Awad, a writer and activist from Tuba in Masafer Yatta and Maya Rosen, a Jerusalem-based Palestine solidarity activist, join FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin for a discussion of how Palestinians in Masafer Yatta continue to build their lives despite the constant existential threat they are under such threat, what they expect from the Israeli Supreme Court, and the international campaign they have launched to save their villages. We’ll also discuss the role of the Israeli judiciary in enabling Israeli apartheid and Israel’s  use of the “firing zone” designation as a means of confiscating Palestinian land. 

Participants

Ali Awad is a writer and activist from the village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills.

Maya Rosen is a graduate student studying history at the Hebrew University. She lives in Jerusalem and is a Palestine solidarity activist. 

Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD, is FMEP’s Director of Programs & Partnerships.

Resources shared in the webinar: 

Read Ali’s writing: 

About Masafer Yatta + the Save Masafer Yatta campaign: 

On Israel’s use of Firing Zones: 

Settlements in Firing Zones: 

The recent FMEP webinar on state-backed settler violence: “Apartheid & Dispossession: Views from the West Bank” – with Eid and Basel al-Adraa from Masafer Yatta – https://fmep.org/resource/apartheid-dispossession-views-from-the-west-bank/ 

B’Tselem: “The Supreme Court of the Occupation” – https://www.btselem.org/supreme_court_of_occupation