Return the Palestinian shepherd communities to their land in C area

Since the Black Sabbath of October 7, 2023, we, the citizens of Israel, Jews, organizations and human rights activists in the territories, have witnessed a sharp increase in the violation of the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories, including terrorist attacks, violence, and intimidation by Jewish settlers, armed with weapons and sometimes dressed in military uniform. The army, which is the official sovereign in the occupied territories, not only refrains from protecting the Palestinians and does not control the violence of the settlers, but often cooperates and even carries out illegal actions against the Palestinian population such as: demolitions, withholding water, denying livelihood, denying access to their agricultural lands, grazing areas to herds or to harvest olives.
As a result, there has been a considerable acceleration in the expulsion/flight of the Palestinian shepherd communities and farmers from their lands in areas C, mainly in the Jordan Valley, the Binyamin area and the South Hebron Hills. During the last few weeks, dozens of communities of Palestinian herders and farmers in the occupied territories suffered violent attacks until they were forced to leave their homes, their living areas, their sources of livelihood, and became refugees on their land. According to the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) report updated on November 24, 2023, at least 15 Palestinian pastoral communities, including hundreds of children, have been forced to flee their land since October 7, due to terrorism and settler violence and harassment by the security forces ( IDF and police). More than twenty additional communities are now under direct threat of deportation.
While Israel is at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in the north, the settlers in the Occupied Territories, with the encouragement of the extreme right-wing government, are taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes against humanity. Human rights activists in the C area observe and document daily violent attacks by settlers, who aim to cleanse Area C of Palestinians as part of a wider messianic geopolitical plan, which destabilizes and threatens to ignite another front in the occupied territories.

As Jews, who share in the collective memory of exile, expulsion and persecution on ethnic grounds, we consider it appropriate to ensure that acts of this type never return, against any minority or population, and certainly not in our name.
While Israel is at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in the north, the settlers in the Occupied Territories, with the encouragement of the extreme right-wing government, are taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes against humanity. Human rights activists in the C area observe and document daily violent attacks by settlers, who aim to cleanse Area C of Palestinians as part of a wider messianic geopolitical plan, which destabilizes and threatens to ignite another front in the occupied territories.

As Jews, who share in the collective memory of exile, expulsion and persecution on ethnic grounds, we consider it appropriate to ensure that acts of this type never return, against any minority or population, and certainly not in our name.

We urgently call on the international community to intervene and demand that the elected government in Israel uphold its commitment to the occupied population according to international law, enforce order in the occupied territories, put an end to settler violence, and enable the safe return of the deported shepherd communities to their lands, while constantly safeguarding the rights to existence, livelihood and dignity of this population.

Failure to take significant steps against these processes greatly endangers the future possibility of any political solution to the conflict between Israel
and the Palestinians.

Looking the Occupation in the Eye
Social workers for peace and welfare
All its citizens
Re’acha Kamocha
Psychoactive
Jordan Valley Activists
Academia for Equality
Other Voice
Policy Working Group
Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
Mothers Against Violence Israel
Machsom Watch
Amnesty International Israel
Yesh-gvul
RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights