In the 2019 in the Holy Land, not too far from the routes of tourists and pilgrims, there are realities of profound misery, like that of the hills south of Hebron that we are going to tell you about.

They live in small caves carved into the rock, in stone rooms without furniture, no bathrooms and no running water. Every morning they have animals to look after, bread to be cooked under boiling ashes, the olive trees to be looked after beyond the dirt road. Every night they take down those thin, colorful mattresses and place them on the floor to sleep on. It's the life of the approximately 1.400 Palestinians of Masafer Yatta, in the hills south of Hebron in the Palestinian West Bank. Between Yatta city and the green line (drawn up with the armistice of 1949 which "separates" Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories) one of the most forgotten areas of the Holy Land is located. At-Tuwani, a-Tuba, Um Fagarah, Maghayir al-Abeed, susia, Qawawis, Shib al Butum, Isfey Foqa, Isfey Tihta, al-Majaz, at-Tabba, al-Fakheit, Jinba, It's happening, Halaweh are the names of fifteen small towns largely unknown even to the population of the region. In these villages people live mainly from sheep farming, of the sale of dairy products, of what can be grown despite the aridity of the soil.

This is an area classified as Area C, under the Oslo Accords (1993-94), and this means that for all building permits and for any type of infrastructure the Palestinians who live in these villages must turn to an Israeli army body: the District Coordination Office. Permits are often denied, forcing these families to return to the caves (as they had already done for decades, but seasonally), or to live in tents and makeshift homes.

The lives of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta are threatened by the fact that in the 1970s a part of the area (approximately three thousand hectares) it was declared a military zone by the Israelis (firing zone 917) and with this the pretext the development of new buildings is hindered. For the Israelis, the Palestinians of those villages are not officially "residents" of the territories, yet some of these centers were marked on maps already in the nineteenth century: this is the case of Jinba. Being a military zone, the eviction of inhabited centers would be necessary for security reasons, in case of exercises. Nevertheless, the Palestinians who live there claim that a similar request is not made to the Israeli settlers who live in the settlements a few dozen meters away (and always in a military area).

In addition to the fear of receiving a demolition order and the possibility of being expelled, residents face attacks on their children on their way to school (by Zionist settlers, ndr); abuses on the lands they own, which are plundered; tractor confiscations; uprooting of trees; summary arrests; acts of vandalism. Consider that only since December 2018 Palestinian residents of At-Tuwani suffered the loss of 70 trees. Operation Colomba reports it … The organization has been in Palestine since 2005, where it carries out "people protection" activities. «Our presence of internationals allows these people to carry out their daily activities», say two volunteers who have lived in Masafer Yatta for years. The main problems are created by some settlers from nearby illegal settlements, populated by religious extremists.

Operation Colomba volunteers report that in the first month of 2019 episodes of violence have intensified in a worrying manner, perhaps due to the upcoming political elections in Israel, next scheduled 9 April. «The most extremist Israeli settlers are showing themselves much more and the activity of the Israeli army has also increased – they explain –. Il 30 last January they delivered several demolition orders and one of the three roads connecting the villages to the urban center of Yatta was destroyed several times".

Also the Knesset Committee on Children's Rights (the Israeli parliament) recognized the danger faced every day by Palestinian children who travel the road from Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed to At-Tuwani to go to school and had them assigned an escort of Israeli soldiers. It happens sometimes, but, that the soldiers show up late, do not come at all or do not react to stop the violence. «One of our tasks is to check that the escort really protects the children – continue the young people from Operation Colomba –. We also carry out support work for farmers who have land in Area C, near some settlements. Our international presence, have a different passport, of cameras and a telephone to call lawyers in case of need, reduces the level of violence".

Operation Colomba is present in Palestine 365 days a year, with an average of four or six volunteers, and try to provide support wherever there is an emergency. «We are there because many villages have made a choice of non-violent popular resistance», say the volunteers. Thus the People's Committee of the South Hebron Hills was born, who over the years has coordinated protest demonstrations and nonviolent actions. «Among the last ones completed, the olive trees uprooted during the night were replanted, or the reorganization of caves damaged fifteen years ago by the violence of some groups of settlers". The Committee is also responsible for organizing activities for children aimed at reconciliation with the other side together with Israeli associations and groups. Women also work in cooperatives, despite the initial resistance from the society in which they live, very traditionalist. Today there are around thirty of them and they make textile products to put on sale.

The fear of many inhabitants of Masafer Yatta is that what happened twenty years ago could happen again: between October and November of 1999 they were 700 the inhabitants expelled from the territory. Only thanks to a petition presented to the High Court of Justice in 2000, they could, over time, return to their villages. The Israeli court's ruling produced only temporary effects and so today many villages are once again at risk of demolition. (…)

source – http://www.centrostudifederici.org/terra-santa-pastori-discriminati-dagli-invasori/