The leader of a Palestinian village council in west bank promised on Friday (6) to continue fighting the eviction of land that the military Israelis claim as a firing range where military exercises take place, despite a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court in a case that has been in court for more than two decades.
“We will all resist and remain in our lands. We have nowhere else to go,” Masafer Yatta council leader Nidal Abu Younis told CNN on Friday.
“Israel is seeking, through these attempts, to separate the villages in the mountains of Hebron from the northern Negev in the occupied lands and sever family ties,” Abu Younis said.
The Israeli Supreme Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday (4) against the villagers Palestinians accepting the Israeli state’s claim that residents began occupying the area after it was declared a shooting zone by the military in 1981.
The court ruling legally paves the way for the expulsion of around 1,000 Palestinians from eight villages outside the city of Hebron. THE UN a European Union and Israeli human rights groups criticized the court’s decision on Thursday.
Lynn Hastings, United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said Palestinian petitioners, having exhausted domestic legal remedies, are now “unprotected and at risk of imminent displacement.”
She called on Israel “to cease demolitions and evictions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in accordance with its obligations under international law.”
The European Union said evicting Palestinians would amount to “the forcible transfer of their homes and destruction of their communities”, which it said was prohibited by international law.
“As an occupying power, Israel has an obligation to protect the Palestinian population and not to displace them,” the European bloc said.
And the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – which represented Palestinian villagers in court – accused the court of passing a measure that would “leave families, children and the elderly without a roof over their heads”. The association said the decision was “unusual and would have serious consequences”.
Tensions are high between Israel and the Palestinians after a series of violent incidents in recent weeks. Dozens have died in attacks in Israel and the West Bank since March 22.
aerial images
Evicting Palestinian residents would separate Hebron from other villages on the southern outskirts of the city.
Supreme Court Justices David Mintz, Ofer Grosskopf and Isaac Amit not only rejected Palestinians’ claims that they lived in the area before 1981, but also ordered each of them to pay $5,900 in expenses.
“We never believed that Israeli courts would bring us justice. The decision came as no surprise to any of us,” said council leader Abu Younis. “We Masafer families have documents that prove our ownership of our lands,” he insisted. The Supreme Court rejected this claim.
Masafer Yatta’s families presented aerial footage as proof that villages had existed in the area for 45 years. But Israel argued that Palestinian residents began occupying the area after it was declared the 918 Tire Zone, and that until then it was used only as seasonal grazing land for the peoples’ livestock.
Judge Mintz said in the court’s verdict that the question of whether the area was a place of permanent residence “is not at all complicated,” as aerial footage of the area before 1980 shows no indication of a residential presence there. Mintz also noted that the area was used by the air force to carry out mock attacks in the 1990s.
The court rejected the claim that turning the area into a closed military zone was contrary to international law and said that when international law contradicts Israeli law, the latter prevails.
Palestinians have argued that they and their families have lived in these villages, whose homes are built inside natural caves, since before Israel was established in 1948.
While the Israeli military declared the area a shooting zone in 1981, residents remained relatively undisturbed until the late 1990s, according to the Supreme Court ruling.
But in 1999, the military and the Civil Administration evicted more than 700 residents. The military downsized the proposed shooting zone in April 2012, when Israel requested that eight villages be demolished instead of 12.
The Supreme Court then suggested that the Palestinians withdraw their legal action, but two other petitions were filed in 2013. The court rejected them. In its decision, the Supreme Court accepted the military’s position that land was necessary for its needs.
Abu Younis said on Friday that villagers will continue to resist despite the defeat in court.
“Soldiers evacuated villagers in trucks to other areas [em 1999], but the villagers returned the same night against the will of the occupation,” he said, referring to Israel. “The same will happen if this court decision becomes a reality.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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