Local Development Committee in Hebron, State of Palestine
Masafer Yatta (Arabic: , also spelled Mosfaret Yatta) is a collection of 19 Palestinian hamlets in the Hebron Governorate of the southern West Bank located between 14 and 24kilometers south of the city of Hebron in the southern Hebron Hills. They are situated within the municipal boundary of Yatta. The name "Masafer" is believed to derive from the Arabic words for "traveling," in light of the distance needed to travel from Yatta, or "nothing" in light of the local belief that "nothing" would be able to live in the area.[1]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, six of the localities that make up Masafer Yatta (Mantiqat Shi'b al-Batim, Khirbet Tawil ash-Shih, Khirbet al-Fakhit, Khirbet Bir al-Idd, Khirbet Asafi and Maghayir al-Abeed) had a population of 768 in 2007. Nearby at-Tuwani serves as a center for the Bedouin localities of Masafer Yatta.[2] Masafer Yatta is administered by a local development committee whose members are appointed by the Ministry of Local Affairs of the Palestinian National Authority.[1]
In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) noted the following places: Shb el Butm, meaning "the spur of the terebinth",[3] Tuweil esh Shh, meaning "the peak or ridge of Artemisia",[3]Kh. el Fekht, meaning "the ruin of the fissure",[4] andKh. Br el 'Edd, meaning "the ruin of the perennial well".[5]
At Kh. Br el 'Edd PEF noted "traces of ruins, and a cistern",[6]while at Kh. el Fekht, they noted "traces of ruins, and a cave."[6]
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Masafer Yatta has been under Israeli occupation.
The hamlet cluster is part of "Area C", meaning that Israel has full military and civil control over it.[1] The area is used by the army for military training and was denominated Firing Zone 918 by the Israeli army, after, according to aad cabinet minute of 1981, Ariel Sharon had explicitly stated that the purpose of such a redefinition would be to enable the expulsion of the local Palestinian residents.[7] More than one thousand Palestinians risk to be expelled from their homes and properties.[8]
Bir el-Eid, which is closest to the Israeli outpost Mitzpeh Yair, report having their cistern vandalized by having an animal carcass thrown into it. Palestinians claim that "the Israeli settlers were believed to be behind the vandalism".[9]
The Israeli authorities have been attempting to force the residents to relocate to Yatta, arguing that hamlets in this area only sprung up in the 1980s, when people from Yatta 'invaded' it after Israel's decision to declare it an IDF firing zone. The villagers appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court on the grounds that they have evidence of living in the area before the Israeli occupation. Their appeal is based on the fact that during the Israeli assault on Samu nearby, in 1966, the villagers of Jinba suffered damage, - the UN documented shortly after 15 houses that had been blown up by Israeli forces-and the damage was formally recognized soon after by the Jordanese government, which paid residents compensation for their losses in April and May 1967: 350dinars per each stone house destroyed; 100dinars for every killed camel, and seven for each sheep. It is argued to the contrary that what was blown up were Bedouin tents. Yet the Israeli geographer Natan Shalem, in his book Midbar Yehuda (Judean Desert) in 1931, stated that several villages there were not Bedouin nomadic encampments. Other evidence attests to the existence of inhabited sites outside Yatta-Jinba, Markaz, Al-Mafkara, Fakhit, Thaban, Al-Majaz, Sarura, Simra, Mughayer Al-Abid, Halawa, Sfei, Rakiz, Tuba, and Khalet a-Daba long before the occupation.[10]
In May 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court endorsed the IDF position regarding an area of 3,000 hectares in which 12 Palestinian villages are sited, paving the way for the expulsion of 1,000 residents, which would be the largest deportation since the 1970s.[7] One of the judges involved in the ruling, David Mintz, resides in the Israeli settlement of Dolev in the West Bank.[7] On 10 May, The European Union[11] said "Settlement expansion, demolitions, and evictions are illegal under international law," and that setting up a firing zone is not an imperative military reason for transfer of an occupied population.[12]
In September 2021, a mob of approximately 80 to 100 masked Israeli settlers invaded the village of Khirbat al-Mufkara, one of the hamlets that compose Masafer Yatta, throwing stones at houses and damaging cars; 12 Palestinians were injured, including a three-year-old Palestinian child who was hit in the head when an Israeli settler threw a stone at him while he was asleep inside his home.[13][14]
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid reacted by calling it a "violent incident", "horrific, and it is terror. This isnt the Israeli way, and it isnt the Jewish way. This is a violent and dangerous fringe, and we have a responsibility to bring them to justice."[14]
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