Bank, appeal to prevent expulsion of Palestinians from Firing Zone 918

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Prominent Israeli writers Zeruya Shalev, Eyal Megged, Sayed Kashua and Alona Kimhi visited the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank yesterday. The writers met with the Palestinian residents of the village of Jenbah, who told them about the reality of their lives and the danger they face of being expelled from the site, which the military has declared “Firing Zone 918”.

In mid-July 2013, Israel’s High Court of Justice will discuss a petition filed by hundreds of residents from the area of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills against the plan to expel them from their homes, following the designation of the area as a firing zone. The writers who visited the site today are part of a group of 24 Israeli writers who signed an appeal written by David Grossman, calling for the expulsion to be cancelled.

The signatories are : David Grossman, Salman Masalha, Amos Oz, Haviva Pedaya, A.B. Yehoshua, Ronit Matalon, Natan Zach, Salman Masalha, Meir Shalev, Yehushua Sobol, Eyal Megged, Etgar Keret, Zeruya Shalev, Agi Mishol, Nir Baram, Sami Michael, Dorit Rabinyan, Shimon Adaf, Alon Hilu, Alona Kimhi, Sayed Kashua, Yehoshua Knaz, Assaf Gavron.
Yoram Kaniuk added his signature before he passed away.

Photos :

http://www.btselem.org/download/press/4944.jpg

http://www.btselem.org/download/press/4963.jpg

http://www.btselem.org/download/press/5019.jpg

Credit : Photo by Guy Butavia

Background on Firing Zone 918

The full text of the appeal :

Help Save The Palestinian Villages in the South Hebron Hills

For the past twenty years Israel has been actively expelling and displacing the inhabitants of the South Hebron Hills villages. These villagers have always practiced a unique lifestyle : most of them are cave dwellers and find their livelihood in sheep- and goat herding and small crop farming.

Over these years they have suffered unceasing harassment by the Israeli army and settlers. Their dwellings are repeatedly demolished, water cisterns ruined and sealed, and their crops destroyed.

1,000 people, adults and children - in eight villages of an area that in the 1980s was declared ‘army firing zone no. 918’ - are now threatened with immediate expulsion from their hamlets. They live in constant fear, helplessly facing a ruthless power that does everything to displace them from the home they have inhabited for centuries.

Now their plight is up for a last review by Israel’s High Court of Justice.

We call out to those who are still able to listen :

We cannot bring peace today. But the least we can do is to expose and condemn “small” local outrages. In a reality of ongoing occupation, of solid cynicism and meanness, each and every one of us bears the moral obligation to try and relieve the suffering, do something to bend back the occupation’s giant, cruel hand. In a place where there are no worthy people, strive to be a worthy person (Pirkei Avot -Ethics of the fathers). Should we not do even this very little ?

Zeruya Shalev : Nothing compares to witnessing, firsthand, the enormity of the injustice that is being done to poor farming families who are not endangering a soul and demand so little. I very much hope that, on the fifteenth of July, the court will decide to let them stay where they are, will relocate the firing zone and will make sure that they are able to live a human life, which every single person deserves. This Biblical setting and this Biblical way of life bring to mind two famous stories of injustice : the vineyard of Navot the Yizre’eli, and the poor man’s lamb. It sounds very similar, that the state is not letting them hold on even to that vineyard, to that poor man’s lamb.
Sayed Kashua : There is nothing to say beyond the injustice and inequality and oppression of everything that is not Jewish in this land.

Eyal Megged : If we can do something to somehow lessen the injustice that is being done here, if we can say something to gild the ugly face of Israeli society as it is reflected in the state’s actions here, I believe that we will already have done something. If we can help raise public awareness of these images in Israel, we will already have done something. Because I think that no one is interested in what is going on here, it’s a godforsaken place far from the center of attention, while the symbolism of all these wrongdoings is great and meaningful. This is a very ugly mirror image of the country.

Alona Kimhi : These villages are specific, the South Hebron Hills are specific, but these villages are the face of the occupation. I know that no one is talking about “the occupation” these days, it’s not part of the Israeli lexicon any more, but it exists. And I am visiting this place so I can tell people inside Israel what is being done in their name.