Israeli army advances eviction of eight Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta

Yaniv Kubovich and Hagar Shezaf report in Haaretz on 11 January 2023:

Senior Israel Defense Forces officers, headed by the chief of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, have begun to prepare for the eviction of hundreds of Palestinians from the area of Masafer Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills, so it can be turned into a regular training ground for the army.

According to senior defense and political officials, the planning began independently two months ago, without prior discussions with political officials, who are responsible for decision-making in this matter. The senior officials said the plan was first shown to the cabinet only last week, after the new government came into office.

Some 1,000 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta live in eight villages. Israel declared the area a military firing zone more than two decades ago, after residents petitioned the High Court of Justice. At the heart of the petition is the Palestinian claim that they had lived there long before the area was declared a firing zone – which would make their eviction illegal.

In May, after a long legal struggle, the High Court accepted the state’s position and permitted the government to permanently evict the residents of Masafer Yatta from their homes. The ruling, written by Justice David Mintz, stated that there were no permanent homes in the area before it was declared a firing zone.

According to residents, the subject of the eviction came up in a meeting last week between a representative of the Civil Administration in the Hebron area, Salim Sa’ad, and representatives of the Palestinian Authority. At the end of the meeting, the PA representative told the Palestinian residents that Sa’ad believed the eviction would take place in another year, and that Sa’ad had told him that there were two alternatives for rehousing the residents, which would be presented to them in the coming weeks.

The meeting had been planned to discuss a request to approve plowing in the area and the residents were surprised by the PA representative’s statements. The residents were also told that Sa’ad spoke about the eviction of 12 villages – and not just the eight villages that were discussed in the last High Court of Justice petition.

In response to a query from Haaretz, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories denied that alternatives were discussed or that the eviction was discussed in a concrete way. COGAT said that the “factual situation” only was presented at the meeting regarding the court ruling and that the area is designated a firing zone.

In June, soldiers went from house to house in Masafer Yatta and checked people’s identity cards. Human rights groups warned that this was in preparation for the eviction, while the IDF said it was part of the fight to prevent illegal entry into Israel through that area. In recent months, live-fire training was held in the area and roadblocks were set up that restricted the residents’ freedom of movement. A petition to the High Court for another hearing was denied, which allowed the eviction to go forward.

The High Court ruling notwithstanding, the issue is considered politically explosive. U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned it on his last visit to Israel in July, and demanded in closed conversations with senior military and political officials that Israel avoid unilateral steps that could lead to an escalation. A senior government official with knowledge of the matter before the formation of the new government told Haaretz: “This is a sensitive political issue, which the U.S. president chose to relate to personally during his latest visit … but someone in the Central Command decided to put this hot potato into the government’s hands now, of all times.”

‘A diplomatic explosion’
According to senior Israeli officials, the plan was first presented to the government only when the new government came into office, although the Central Command had begun preparing it some two months ago. It was presented last week to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, during his first visit to Central Command Headquarters.

Although the move is considered sensitive, political sources familiar with the matter claim that Fuchs instructed that an operational plan be drawn up for eviction as soon as the High Court ruling was handed down, and before a thorough discussion with senior political and security figures in Israel had taken place. According to security officials involved in Gallant’s visit, he does not rule out the eviction, but told the senior command that he is not familiar with the matter and needs to study it thoroughly and revisit the decisions that were made.

“There was no directive by the government to carry out the eviction,” said a government official intimately familiar with the matter. “It would have been better to handle the whole thing quietly. In the Central Command it was decided to bring the subject up now publicly and in the current makeup of the cabinet it will be very difficult to make such decisions without extraneous considerations.” The government official warned that “the evacuation could end as diplomatic explosion.”

Security officials confirmed in closed conversations that the decision to formulate the plan was made in the Central Command with the intention of evacuating the area if they were asked to do so. “This was done from below to above,” an official said. Those same officials confirmed that the Central Command was aware of Biden’s request. However, officers in the command believed that despite Biden’s request, the operational plan should be formulated and a decision brought before the new security cabinet.

Security and Civil Administration officials told Haaretz that they had expressed concern that in this case, the conduct of the Central Command could be a warning sign as to what might come regarding the army’s ability to stand up to the politicians and prominent right-wing figures exerting pressure on senior officers and expecting them to make decisions conforming to their worldview – according to political decisions rather than operational ones. They said they did not know what factor was at play in the timing of the plan’s presentation.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said: “Firing Zone 918 was declared a firing zone in 1980, and in the High Court ruling on May 4, 2022, it was decided that at the time of the declaration there were no permanent residents in the area. The petitioners asked for another hearing, but the court denied their petition.  In light of the court’s remarks in this ruling, in recent months a process of dialogue was held with the Palestinians in the region, so that they will evacuate the firing zone independently. Like the rest of its missions, the IDF is required to prepare organized plans to carry out its responsibility and authority, which it will present as needed to the political echelon. We will not relate to internal discussions and decisions about operational plans.”

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