Palestine Update 598
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Resistance and Resilience
Masafer Yatta (also spelled Mosfaret Yatta) is a collection of 19 Palestinian hamlets in the southern West Bank, in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine, located between 14 and 24 kilometers south of the city of Hebron, in the southern Hebron Hills. It is in the news today because Israel has set its eyes on the area and seeks to expel some 1,000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills “by making the conditions they live in so unbearable they are forced to leave the area they have lived in for generations”. A report from B’Tselem’s, a rights group based in Israel, underlines that Israel’s aims to make Palestinians’ lives “miserable enough so they will leave their homes and land, and the state will take over the area.”
And to hinder resistance, the US has joined to amplify its enforcement of pre-existing anti-boycott laws, in an attempt to place pressure on the Arab League to normalize relations with Israel. The new policy would increase fines against US companies boycotting Israel, and also increase its focus on foreign subsidiaries of American companies. These pressures do not affect those who are determined to resist the colonial dispensation’s machinations. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian coalition is calling on supporters of Palestinian rights worldwide to join climate justice movements in holding the US fossil fuel multinational Chevron and the German conglomerate Siemens accountable for helping to fuel environmental destruction and Israeli apartheid.
Adding to public campaigns, Cardinal Nicholas an English cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Westminster has stated that the move to relocate UK’s Israel Embassy to Jerusalem would be seriously damaging to lasting peace in the region and to the international reputation of the United Kingdom.
We conclude this edition of Palestine Updates with a human interest story from Khan Younis beginning eight years ago. Savagae Israeli attacks eight years ago cost Wiam al-Astal her left leg below the knee. She was 9 years old at the time. Along with Wiam, her father and other family members were injured. “It all happened in an instant,” Now 17, Wiam finds friendship and solace on a girl’s basketball team for amputees. “We meet friends with similar needs as we’re all amputees. It’s not the same as playing with people without disabilities.” They enjoy the sport and are now inseparable. Says Mai: “As soon as I met someone like me, a person with an amputation, I found someone like me; I felt less alone…We share the same abilities and feelings. We understand one another because we share similar experiences.”
Ranjan Solomon
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates
End Masafer Yatta nightmare, rights group tells ICC
A prominent Israeli human rights group is calling on Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to urgently intervene to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from a rural area of the West Bank. B’Tselem requested Khan’s “urgent intervention to prevent Israel from continuing to carry out this policy” and to clarify that forcible transfer constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court.
Israel seeks to expel some 1,000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills “by making the conditions they live in so unbearable they are forced to leave the area they have lived in for generations,” B’Tselem states in a letter. “While these efforts have been underway for decades, Israel has recently massively stepped them up – in scope, severity and frequency.” Those efforts were accelerated after Israel’s high court rejected a legal challenge to the state’s plans to turn the area into a military training zone. One of the Israeli judges who issued the verdict is a settler who was born in the UK and lives in a Jewish-only colony in the West Bank built in violation of international law. The high court’s ruling in May concluded two decades of legal challenges mounted by Palestinians in Masafer Yatta.
Since 2006, Israel destroyed nearly 70 “residential structures in these communities that were home to 355 people, 175 of them minors,” according to B’Tselem. The group has “also documented the demolition of 32 non-residential structures in these communities.” Violence by Jewish settlers also serves the state’s aim of pushing Palestinians off of their land in Masafer Yatta. “Jewish settlers physically assault Palestinian shepherds and use their land, sabotage water sources and enter homes, among other violent acts, with full state backing and often the active participation of Israeli soldiers and police,” B’Tselem states. Since the High Court’s ruling earlier this year, “life for Palestinian residents has become a nightmare.” Israel’s aims to make Palestinians’ lives “miserable enough so they will leave their homes and land, and the state will take over the area.”
Read complete report in Electronic Intifada
US to strengthen penalties for joining Arab League’s Israel boycott
Companies boycotting Israel to face increased enforcement
The US Department of Commerce has announced plans to increase its enforcement of pre-existing anti-boycott laws, in an attempt to place pressure on the Arab League to normalise relations with Israel. The new policy, announced by the department on Thursday, would increase fines against US companies boycotting Israel, and also increase its focus on foreign subsidiaries of American companies. The policy builds on a US law passed in 1979, which states American companies and individuals will face criminal and civil penalties for participating in the Arab League’s longstanding position to boycott Israel.
Read full report in Middle East Eye
Chevron and Siemens: Stop profiting from Israeli apartheid and climate destruction: BDS say
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian coalition that leads the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, calls on supporters of Palestinian rights worldwide to join climate justice movements in holding the US fossil fuel multinational Chevron and the German conglomerate Siemens accountable for helping to fuel environmental destruction and Israeli apartheid. Chevron has been the main international actor extracting gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean since it acquired Noble Energy in 2020. With its extracting activities, Chevron is implicated in Israel’s policy and practice of depriving the Palestinian people of their right to sovereignty over their natural resources. Chevron is potentially complicit in Israel’s pillage of Palestinian gas reserves off the shores of the occupied Gaza Strip, a war crime under international law.
Mahmoud Nawajaa, general coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee said: “Chevron has been the main international corporation extracting gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean, helping Israel deprive Palestinians of our right to sovereignty over our natural resources…Chevron is complicit, among others, in Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza that prevents Palestinians from accessing the sea, including Israel’s illegal transfer of extracted fossil gas to Egypt through a pipeline crossing Gaza’s blockaded sea, owing Palestinians millions in transit fees.”
Read complete report in Palestine News Network
UK cardinal condemns relocation of UK’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem
Cardinal Nichols said Pope Francis called for Jerusalem to never become ‘an exclusive monopoly’ of any part
Cardinal Nicholas has stated that the move to relocate UK’s Israel Embassy to Jerusalem would be seriously damaging to lasting peace in the region and to the international reputation of the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs has launched a diplomatic and political campaign, in coordination with the Arab ambassadors in Britain, to prevent the transfer of the British embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem. Arab ambassadors in London have sent a letter to British Prime Minister Liz Truss confirming their rejection of this “illegal and ill-judged” move.
The Guardian newspaper reported that some Arab diplomats have warned that the Truss plan may jeopardise talks on the free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council scheduled to be completed this year. The plan is rejected by Arab countries supporting the Palestinian cause and those who normalised their relations with Israel in 2020. This comes as the UK’s new prime minister told her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, that her office will review moving her country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.
View video of Cardinal’s speech in Middle East Monitor
Also read report in Middle East Monitor
Video: Finding friendship and strength through basketball
An Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis eight years ago cost Wiam al-Astal her left leg below the knee. She was 9 years old at the time. Along with Wiam, her father and other family members were injured. “It all happened in an instant,” Wiam told The Electronic Intifada. “We were with the neighbors’ girls during the war. I suddenly woke up and found the place filled with smoke,” she added. “When they informed me that my leg would be amputated, I cried, I was devastated. I felt like my life was over and that I would never be able to live again,” Wiam said.
Now 17, Wiam finds friendship and solace on a girls basketball team for amputees. “We meet friends with similar needs as we’re all amputees. It’s not the same as playing with people without disabilities,” she said. It was through the team that she met 16-year-old Mai al-Yazji, who has become one of her closest friends. Since she was a toddler, Mai had mobility impairment in her right leg, which later led to an amputation. “I joined this team,” Mai told The Electronic Intifada. “It made me very happy. We play and have fun together and we devote our energy to this sport. It’s a very collaborative and enjoyable sport.”
The girls are now inseparable. “From the first time I saw Mai I adored her. She’s one of my best friends,” Wiam said. “As soon as I met someone like me, a person with an amputation, I found someone like me, I felt less alone,” Wiam said. “We are very similar. We share the same abilities and feelings. We understand one another because we share similar experiences.”
Video by Ruwaida Amer and Abdel Kareem Hana
View video in Electronic Intifada
