Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

أن ت We refuse to die in silence

בשקט למות מסרבים Nous refusons de mourir en silence Oтказываются умирать в тишине Rifiutandosi di morire in silenzio Weigerung in der Stille sterben Se niega a morir en silencio

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Context:

Al Mufaqarah is a community situated in the area of Masafer Yatta, in a territory of around 7500 acres adjacent to the Green Line and designated by Israeli authorities as “Firing Area 918” since the 70’s.

The Firing Zone encompasses twelve Palestinian villages: at Tuba, al-Mufaqarah, a-Sfay, Maghayir el- Abeed, al-Majaz, a-Tabban, al-Fakhit, al-Halaweh, al-Mirkez, Jinba, al-Kharuba, and a-Sarura.

Recently, Defense Ministry Ehud Barak announced the evacuation of eight of these twelve villages -al Majaz, a-Tabban, a-Sfay, al- Fakhit, al-Halaweh, al-Mirkez, Jinba, and al- Kharuba-, while the other four – al- Mufaqarah, at-Tuba, Maghayir al-Abeed and as-Sarura - will be spared. The eviction’s cause is that the land is needed for military training.

In the case the eight hamlets are displaced, around 1500 persons will be left homeless and moved to the close city of Yatta. Also the fate of the four spared hamlets, systematically targeted with demolition orders and exposed to settlers’ attacks, will be already determined, as they will find themselves isolated and cut off from the vital center of Yatta.

According to Barak’s declaration, the villagers will be allowed to access their land for farming on weekends and Jewish holidays, and during two one-month periods each year, when the Israeli army is not training in the area.

The “Firing Zone 918”: The 1999 eviction of the Firing Zone residents

The “Firing Zone 918” was declared in the 70’s, but this decision had no consequences on the lives of the residents until the end of the 90’s.

On 5 th October 1999, the communities in the Firing Zone area received an evacuation order . Al- Mufaqara residents were warned only on the 15th of November, just 24 hours before Israeli soldiers arrived. The next day, the Israeli army forcefully evacuated its inhabitants and those who did not

2 leave the area pursuant to the order of 5 th October, and move these communities to the other side of road 317. In the meantime, they destroyed the tents, sealed the caves and dispersed the flocks. Some of the evacuees took refuge in tents in the village of al-Tuwani, while others moved to the city of Yatta.

A total of 700 people were displaced and led to be homeless.

In January 2000, four expulsed families represented by ACRI (Association for civil Rights in Israel) petitioned the High Court. The families requested an order permitting them to return to their homes and ordering the state to return the property that had been confiscated during the expulsion or, alternatively, to compensate them for the losses they had sustained. In February, eighty-two other residents petitioned the High Court. The court ordered that the two petitions be heard together. On 29 March 2000, the High Court granted the petitioners’ application to maintain the status quo that existed prior to the expulsion.

Many residents came back to their few properties spared by the destruction the suffered few months before. Between them, the families who did not participate in the petition were then targeted by another eviction order issued by the Civil Administration, which asked them to prove their permanent residency in the area. ACRI filed an application with the High Court in July 2001, requesting to add 112 additional residents as petitioners. Ten months later, the court approved the application.

From the end of 2002, a mediation process ordered by the court and aimed to examine the question of residents’ residence started but, due to a lack of a common consent on the appointment of an expert, it ended in 2005 without success.

The eviction of hundreds of and the proclamation of the Closed Military Area was attributed to imperative military needs and based on the “Order Regarding Defense regulations”. These documents stated that the military commander has the authority to close any area and evacuate from the area any person who enters it without permission. This rule does not apply to permanent residents. For this reason, Israel authorities claim that the inhabitants of the closed area live there seasonally, which is true only for a small percentage of them. The cave dwellers of these twelve villages are not and, according to anthropological and archeological researches, they have been living in the South Hills at least since the 1830s.

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Israeli policies of enclosure and settlers’ violence

Six years ago, Israeli authorities built an 80 cm wall along road 317 , creating a de facto divide and cutting any connection between the village of al- Tuwani, the people living in the closed area and the vital city of Yatta. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court, which ruled the wall should be dismantled.

The announcement of Barak’s evacuation plan has been anticipated, in the last two months, by the delivery of stop working orders and demolition orders to the spared villages of Mufaqarah and Tuba.

Alongside with Israeli policies of displacement, demolitions and enclosures, Masafer Yatta residents’ are frequently exposed to settlers’ attacks . The so proclaimed closed area is surrounded by the illegal settlements of Ma’on, Karmil, Susya, and Metzadot Yehuda, all of which were founded at the beginning of the 80’s, and by several outposts. Settlers’ violence targets people, in particular the local shepherds and their flocks, as well as Palestinian crops and wheels. Last months have seen the continued increase of physical assaults and properties’ vandalisation in the whole area.

All Israeli policies in the area testify to Israeli’s attempts to isolate and to ethnic cleansing the region in order to expand its colonies and annex the territory.

According to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention the total or partial evacuation of a given area should be implemented to assure the security of the population of the occupied territory or to imperative military reasons. «The persons thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased». Furthermore, «the Occupying Power undertaking such transfers or evacuations shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent that proper accommodation is provided to receive the protected persons that the removals are effected in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that members of the same family are not separated».

As the evacuation of the area, which is claimed as an Idf training ground, cannot be attributed neither to the security of the Palestinian population nor to a pressing military need, Masafer Yatta residents refuse to leave their homes and their properties and keep on resisting by remaining steadfast on their land.

A team of lawyers appealed the court decision and is currently working on the issue.

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Mufaqarah R-Exist campaign Al Mufaqarah

In Mufaqarah, fifteen families are living in caves, tents and few stones houses, farming and grazing, as their ancestors have been doing for ages. Its population, originally from the nearby village of At-Tuwani moved about 4Km south to set up the village of Mufaqarah by the end of the British Mandate. At first, it seems as if nothing has changed. Secluded on a hillside, Mufaqarah is accessible only by a rough dirt road. It stands quiet, facing the Naqab desert.

Its 160 residents, as in the twelve other hamlets of the firing zone, maintain a unique way of life, with many living in or beside dug caves . As families expanded, they build tents and a few stones houses. The community relies for its livelihood on growing grain and olives, husbandry of sheep and goats, and on the production of milk and cheese.

Israel’s occupation policies have definitely prevented the natural development and growth of Mufaqarah and the surrounding hamlets, all of which are facing the same conditions.

Demolitions: As 60% of the , the South Hebron Hills lies in the , meaning it is under complete Israeli administrative and political control. Palestinians residing in area C live under harsh conditions in terms of land confiscations, house demolitions, and access to water and electricity . Most of the villages of the South Hebron Hills have been forcedly displaced or demolished many times with the building of new settlements. Moreover, according to Ocha, over 94% of Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C submitted between January 2000 and September 2007 were denied. Also, for each permit allowing Palestinian construction that is issued by the ICA, 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued for structures in Area C.

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Several structures have been demolished in Mufaqarah on the 24th of November 2011, following demolition orders delivered three years before. In that occasion, the Israeli army destroyed the mosque, two houses, a cattle shed, the generator building and violently arrested two girls. After this episode the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) with funds from the Humanitarian Relief Fund (HRF), managed by UN and OCHA, delivered three mobile houses, which do not constitute a housing solution in keeping with the traditions of the inhabitants. Also, all these houses have recently received a ‘stop-working’ order expired on the 29 th of May 2012.

On June 18 th , the DCO delivered five stop working orders to the Palestinian village of Tuba, involving two of the three families living in the area.

The inhabitants had the possibility to appeal to the High Court only before the 9th July, so to prevent that these measures will turn into executive demolition orders. The orders concern 20 people and include: three tents and a toilet made of tin, a compound for the sheep’s and a pavilion belonging to the first family; a house, a tent used as storage and one with concrete floor belonging to the second family.

Two stop working orders have been given to ten solar panels and an electric turbine donated in 2010 by “Comet-Me”, an Israeli NGO that supports the economic and social empowerment of local communities through material support and environmental sustainability.

The village is located in an isolated position: the primary services are in the nearby communities (such as Yatta and At-Tuwani), connected to Tuba by a public road that cannot be used by Palestinians.

The road, in fact, runs through Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost and the inhabitants of the area are therefore forced to walk longer and through unsafe secondary streets. Harassments and violent attacks against Palestinians, in particular children, often came from Havat Ma’on. 6

For this reason, these last have been daily escorted on the public road by the Israeli army since 2006, in order to reach the school, located in the near village of At-Tuwani.

Lack of infrastructures: There are no paved roads leading from the villages, and the harsh topography of the area compels the residents to travel to and from the closed area by foot, on horse or donkey, or by tractor or off-road vehicles. In Mufaqarah there are two cars, three tractors and twenty-one donkeys. Heavy restrictions on freedom movement, work and business isolate these communities and increase poverty among the population.

The villages are also not linked to a power grid, telephone lines, a running-water system or a sewage system. The normal water supply is rain, saved from the rainy season. Although the water table in the area is healthy enough to be able to build a well, the military does not let them; as well as building more rainwater catchment capacity isn’t allowed either. As the rain water doesn’t last through the dry season and the inhabitants have to spend roughly 10 to 15% of their income to buy water, brought by tanker from Yatta. The residents also tried to run electrical lines from at-Tuwani village but the army demolished the pylon at the beginning of November 2011.

As in all the villages of the Firing Area 318, every morning during the school season, the 60 children, girls and boys alike, walk a few kilometers to catch a bus which takes them to their schools, either in A-Tuwani or Yatta. They usually attend school until 15 years of age; a few of them graduate from university. Children from Tuba e Maghayr al Abeed, escorted by IDF since settlers frequently attempted to their lives, Al Mufaqarah and Ar Rakeez attend at-Tuwani primary school, while the children coming from the eight villages under threat of eviction attend Al Fakheit School.

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The campaign:

In an attempt to sustain the ongoing struggle of the inhabitants of the area, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC), together with the South Hebron Hills Committee and the community itself, launched the Mufaqarah R-Exist campaign to bring back Mufaqarah on the map. Through the construction of 15 houses, each for a family of the hamlet, the campaign aims to make Mufaqarah existence a fact.

The campaign, which is providing also a legal support to the community, was launched the 19th of May when Palestinians, Israelis and international activists gathered in the village to build the first brick house. Three others buildings have been constructed since that day.

As a laboratory for the villages of the entire area, Mufaqarah intends to follow in at-Tuwani’s footsteps, as this village, after many years of struggle, managed to obtain a Master Plan and to build brick houses, a school and a small clinic for its 300 inhabitants. The campaign aspires to create a precedent for the twelve villages of the Firing zone 318.

The campaign is facing different challenges. After the launch of the campaign, the occupying forces have been focusing their attention on the community, frequently visiting the hamlet and preventing the residents to carry building materials in the surrounded area.

On the 10 th of June the Israeli Civil Administration has delivered three stop working orders, followed on the 17 th of July by demolition orders . The measures are targeting a brick house and two tents. The house has been built by the community with the help of Israelis and International activists

8 during al Mufaqarah R-exist campaign and is now home for a family of eleven persons. The tents served as meeting place for the community as well as a place to welcome international delegations. These tents also hosted the summer camp which took place in the village from the 1st to the 14th of July with children from different nearby villages.

The lawyer has received all the documentation needed to appeal the decision and is currently working on it.

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Contacts:

Al Mufaqarah R-Exist Campaign http://www.facebook.com/AlMufaqarahRExist http://almufaqarah.wordpress.com https://picasaweb.google.com/al.mufaqarah

Press Contact: Federica 059 55 43 546 [email protected]

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee Governmental Hospital Street – Qaddura refugee camp Ramallah – Palestine 00 972/ (0)2-298 57 02 www.popularstruggle.org http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/254782982176

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