Appeals for support after Jerusalem court threatens Masafer Yatta community centre

Residents of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank have appealed for help after an Israeli court ruled for the demolition of a vital community centre.

The Youth of Sumud (YOS) Centre in At-Tuwani, one of Masafer Yatta's composite villages, has been a hub for pro-Palestine campaigning and community organising for four years, and served as a guest house for foreign activists.

YOS campaigners were featured in the documentary No Other Land, with At-Tuwani being the home village of the documentary's co-director Basel Adra.

On 29 September, the Jerusalem District Court rejected an appeal against a demolition order issued in 2022. The destruction of the site could occur within the next week.

YOS coordinator Sami Huraini, whose family has owned the land the centre is located on for generations, said they had been in a legal battle for years over the building.

"They always have different excuses for the demolition and this time they claim we destroyed an archaeological site - which is a big lie," he told Middle East Eye.

The Jerusalem court ruled that the YOS centre had been built without consultation of the Archaeology Commission and was therefore illegal.

But Huraini dismissed the ruling as yet another attempt by Israel to capture land in Masafer Yatta, a process which has been ongoing for decades.

"We asked them in court: 'Show us what we destroyed, where is the expert?' They showed nothing," he said.

"My father brought everything to court... they said you need to have asked for a permit."

He added that he could see Israeli settlers uprooting trees on his family's land, just a few hundred metres from the site.

"Israel is able to do this... because no one in the world will tell them to stop."

'Heritage sites'

Palestinians have long accused Israel of using archaeological studies as a means of justifying demolitions in Palestinian territory.

In June 2023, the Israeli government handed the Israeli Civil Administration - the settlement-governing body which is largely under the authority of far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich - jurisdiction over "heritage sites" in Area B of the occupied West Bank, stripping it from the Palestinian Authority.

This gave the ICA the ability to restrict development or carry out demolitions in areas designated as antiquities sites or as suspected of containing antiquities.

Israeli authorities declared Masafer Yatta - which is in the fully Israel-controlled Area C - a military training zone in the 1980s, leading to hundreds of Palestinians fighting to remain on their ancestral lands as their homes are increasingly demolished.

Despite No Other Land highlighting the forced displacement and illegal home demolitions of Palestinians in the area, settlers and soldiers have continued to attack, and even kill, the Palestinian residents.

A report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released on Thursday said that, since February, Israeli forces have conducted four mass demolitions in the village of Khallet Athaba in Masafer Yatta, reducing more than 85 percent of homes and shelters to rubble and forcing families to move into caves.

Last week Israeli forces destroyed seven shelters, nine tents and six caves, as well as over 14 water tanks and the village's entire electricity system.

One resident of Khallet Athaba told MSF that nine settlers forced their way into her home last month, where she was alone with her four children, and began beating the children with metal bars and attempted to hit her three-month-old baby on the head.

Both she and her baby were then pepper-sprayed, and the settlers continued beating her while she was trying to protect her baby.

Her children were left with a broken arm, a head injury and a bone fracture, while the baby was later taken to hospital and remains under observation due to continued vomiting.

Speaking to MEE last November, Adra pointed out that the whole of the occupied West Bank had seen spiralling numbers of attacks from soldiers and settlers since October 2023, with hundreds killed and reams of homes and neighbourhoods destroyed.

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"And yet governments like the UK, the US [and] Germany still defend Israel, backing it and supporting it," he said.

"They are complicit in the occupation, the apartheid and the genocide in Gaza."

In July, Awdah Hathleen, a consultant for No Other Land, was killed by an Israeli settler.

The settler accused of killing him, Yinon Levi, had previously been sanctioned by US President Joe Biden's administration and the European Union for his violent attacks on Palestinians and their property.

The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers in January.

Despite video evidence capturing Levi firing a gun towards Hathleen, Levi was later released.

Huraini said that while the Academy Award-winning documentary had highlighted their plight, there were still weekly demolitions in Masafer Yatta and their lives were still at risk.

"We should build on that and continue to work on that," he said, referring to No Other Land.

"Masafar Yatta became more known and more heard - we hope more people will act."