UN experts criticise Israel ‘harassment’ in West Bank

• UN special rapporteurs on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory slammed Israel’s “harassment” of rights defenders and aid workers.
• In May, an Israeli court allowed the eviction of 1,200 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta for a military training zone.

GENEVA: UN experts blasted Israel’s “harassment” of human rights advocates and humanitarian workers in Masafer Yatta, where Israel controls a military zone.

The special rapporteurs stated that residents are still at risk of coercive relocation, including mass evictions and arbitrary displacement.

“Israeli authorities’ hubris is proving without limits. They are even harassing human rights defenders and humanitarian workers seeking to support and protect people facing grave human rights violations in Masafer Yatta,” jointly asserted four experts.

Masafer Yatta, or Firing Zone 918, is an agricultural area near Hebron.

The army claimed the 30-square-kilometre (12-square-mile) land was unoccupied in the 1980s.

Eight villages fought eviction for 20 years in court.

In May, Israel’s High Court allowed evicting Palestinian residents for a military training zone.

“The tragic implications of that decision are now before our eyes: roughly 1,200 Palestinian residents in Masafer Yatta are left defenceless in front of the threat of forced eviction and arbitrary displacement, said the experts, who do not speak for the UN but are obligated to report their conclusions to it.

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Special rapporteurs on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, IDPs, sufficient housing, and human rights defenders wrote the statement.

They expressed dismay over allegations that Israeli soldiers mistreated human rights defenders and aid workers in Masafer Yatta.

“They have been stopped and detained for several hours at checkpoints and had their identification documents or cars confiscated, often on the grounds that they had entered a closed military site without permission,” their statement read.

The experts said that Sami Hureini, a famous human rights defender and member of the “Youth of Sumud,” was “involved in peaceful opposition against unlawful settlements in the southern Hebron hills.”

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