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 1 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, Israel 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 Palestinians 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 Bedouins and, according to anthropological and archeological researches, they have been living in the South Hebron Hills at least since the 1830s. 3 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. 4 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 West Bank, the South Hebron Hills lies in the Area C, 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. 5 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.