UN rapporteurs today called on Israel to stop “harassing” aid workers and human rights defenders in an area of the occupied West Bank where the Israeli military is training.
“The arrogance of the Israeli authorities is proving to know no bounds. The authorities are even harassing human rights advocates and humanitarian workers who are trying to support and protect people facing serious human rights violations in Masafar Yata,” said the four Speakers in a statement.
In May, Israel’s highest court vindicated the army by ruling that the area of Masafar Yata, home to 12 Palestinian villages in the Judean desert at the southern tip of the West Bank, had been a firing range since 1980. The ruling paved the way for for the possible eviction of the residents and the construction of housing for potential settlers.
“The tragic consequences of this decision are now before our eyes: nearly 1,200 Palestinian residents of Masafar Yata have been left defenseless against the threat of forced eviction and arbitrary displacement,” argued the Rapporteurs, who are mandated by the Human Rights Council of UN but they do not speak on his behalf.
Masafar Yata is located in “Area C” which is under the military and political control of Israel, under the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of 1993 which divided the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, into three zones or areas – A, B. C.
The four Rapporteurs express their “surprise at reports that human rights defenders and humanitarian workers have been harassed by the Israeli army in Masafar Yata”.
According to these experts, (defenders) were arrested and held for hours at checkpoints and had their identity documents or cars confiscated, often on the grounds that they had entered military territory without permission.
The UN experts expressed particular concern about Sami Hourini, a prominent human rights defender and member of “Shumud Youth” which — according to them — is “a group of activists committed to peaceful resistance against the illegal Jewish settlements in the hills of south Hebron”.
On June 28, 2022, Houreni was reportedly arrested at a checkpoint in Masafar Yata and is currently being tried by the Ofer military court for obstructing a soldier, assaulting him and entering a closed military area, after participating in a demonstration on 8 January 2021.
Riham Nasra’s lawyer told AFP that his client was on trial “only because he dared to protest against the occupation”. “Sami, like other activists in Masafar Yata, who believe in non-violent protest, suffers both the daily oppression of the army and the injustice of martial law… which disregards the fundamental human rights of Palestinians,” the lawyer pointed out.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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