By Hamdan Ballal, HUMANS OF MASAFER YATTA, NOV 10, 2024

Masafer Yatta is living through very difficult and dangerous days, in light of the repeated violence of settlers. The danger posed by them has become greater due to the lack of justice and lack of accountability. The settlers do what they want, and the goal of all they do is to displace the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta from their homes and their land. I spoke with some families in the area who told me of the violence they’ve been experiencing recently. 

The settlers use all sorts of methods. Not only do they physically attack Palestinians, seize their pastures, and forbid Palestinians from entering their own land, but they make false allegations against the people, which is what recently happened in the village of Hariba al-Nabi. 

I spoke with village resident Samiha Abu Ali, whose family settlers falsely accused of stealing six sheep. 

“At first there was unusual car traffic on the road that passes near our house. Strange cars were parked in the street and these cars worried me a lot; I was feeling a terrible fear inside me that there would be an attack.”

Abu Ali described how the settler began grazing his sheep among her family’s olive trees, a grove 300 meters from the house. After a while, the settler started to move closer to her house with his sheep. She saw him make a phone call, and then he left.

At about 7:30 pm, a car of settlers stopped on the street, about 200 meters from the village, and three settlers who must have been under the age of 18 got out. They approached the front of the Abu Ali house and called out to Samiha’s husband, accusing him of stealing their sheep. He replied that he is 70 years old, “how can I steal your sheep, I did not steal anything, these are my sheep.” The settlers didn’t listen and remained in front of the house, continuing to claim that their stolen sheep were with the family.

Eventually, one of the neighbors’ sons called the police. They came, along with an army vehicle. Samiha and her husband could see that Betzalel Talia, the settler sanctioned by the U.S. was with them. The police did not do anything to remove the settlers from the Abu Ali’s land, and rather the settlers began to multiply until the number reached approximately twenty. They all claimed that Samiha’s husband had stolen their sheep, and at 8:30 pm the army locked the family inside a room in their house before accompanying the settlers into their sheep pen. 

The police, whom the family had contacted in order to protect themselves, instead allowed the settlers to steal their sheep. At first it was unclear how many sheep the settlers took because the army and police had detained the family inside the house and did not allow them to go out. The settlers were allowed to take the sheep and do what they wanted. It was only after a long time, after the army and the settlers had left, that the family were able to inspect the sheep. In total, twenty had been taken.

“It is clear that the settlers want us to leave the region and leave our homes, but I will never leave my house and never leave my village” said Samiha.

The settlers were not satisfied with the Abu Ali family’s sheep, but also went on to steal from their neighbors.

I spoke to Mahmoud Abdel Mohsen who told me that the settlers came to his home to conduct a search accompanied by the army. He called the police, who came soon after – only to join in on the search. When Mohsen asked a policeman why they were not protecting him and his property from the settlers, he was told that the settlers will be made to leave only after he admits where the “stolen” sheep are.

The army asked Mohsen to accompany them into the sheep pen in the neighboring house. After he opened the door to the pen, one of the settlers, Betzalel Talia suddenly started to beat him and forced him to the ground. He told Mohsen to go back to his house and wait while the army searched the neighbors’ pen. After a while the army returned to Mohsen, and said that they and the police had found six stolen sheep.

According to the army, his neighbor had confessed that Mohsen had stolen the sheep. When Mohsen argued that he was innocent, and that in fact, he was the one who had called the police, he was ignored.

The settlers took the six sheep that they claimed to be theirs. Soon after, the police approached Mohsen and his neighbor Saeed Musa Rashaideh. They tied their hands, put them in the police car, and drove them to the Kiryat Arba station. When they arrived, they were taken to the interrogator’s room and asked if they had stolen the settler’s sheep. They said no. They were asked, did you throw stones at the settler? Again they said no. They were released at about two in the morning; the army opened the gate and told them to go home.

Later, a group of settlers returned to Mohsen’s house and the house of his uncle Miteb. They detained the whole family inside.

The settlers, under the protection of the army, stole thirty sheep — as well as ten from Mohsen’s uncle Moteeb, and another ten from the village. The settlers also broke Muteeb’s phone and tore up his ID. Some of the sheep were loaded into a car, and others were led by the settlers on foot to the settlement of Khavat Talia. 

It is blatant that the settlers were lying about the stolen sheep. They initially claimed that Mohsen had stolen six sheep from them, however it was the settlers themselves who took more than 70 sheep. It is clearly an act of theft that fits into the settlers’ larger plan to displace the residents of Masafer Yatta: to make their lives unlivable.

An even more disturbing tactic used by the settlers in recent times is dumping dead sheep inside the villages of Masafer Yatta. By leaving piles of sheep carcasses right by where the people live, the settlers hope to terrorize the residents out of their own homes, and the region completely.

But in spite of all these mounting pressures and inhumane acts, the residents of Masafer Yatta are not intimidated and will not be pushed to abandon their land. They are steadfast, and even if justice is absent and humanity is absent, Masafer Yatta will remain.

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