In Episode Ten of our podcast we speak to Jabba from the village of Khallet al-Daba’, in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills.

The Israeli supreme court has ordered the destruction of several villages in Masafer Yatta, and the occupation wants to destroy Khallet al-Daba’ first. The residents of Khallet al-Daba’ remain steadfast in the face of the demolitions, and are calling for international volunteers to come to the village and support them.

Click here to view the transcript

Links

• International Solidarity Movement call to action - Masafer Yatta
• Save Masafer Yatta website
• Masafer Yatta - communities Israel is trying to drive out - by Btselem
• If you would like an explanation of the terms used in this podcast, you can find a useful glossary on pages 140-154 of Shoal Collective's Ebook

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Shoal Collective

Hey, welcome to international solidarity

movement podcast [translation in Arabic]

Hey, and welcome to Episode Ten of the International

Solidarity Movement podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode

we talk to Jabba from the village of Khallet al-Daba' in

Masafer Yatta in the south Hebron hills, the village of

Khallet al-Daba' is under threat of complete destruction by the

Israeli military. And residents have asked the International

Solidarity Movement and other supporters to maintain a

presence in the village and support the villagers

steadfastness in the face of the occupier. Now, I hand over to

Jabba to tell us why it's urgent that the people of Khallet

al-Daba' receive our support and solidarity. You can find out

more by visiting the Save Masafer website. You can find

links to this website and to other useful websites about

Masafer Yatta in the show notes for this show.

Okay, so we're here with with Jabba from the village of

Khallet al-Daba'. and it's a village where [the]

International Solidarity Movement has been staying in the

recent months because of the threat of demolition and

eviction of the village by Israeli forces. And, yeah, so I

just want to - we just wanted to hear, first of all, like, what

it was like, well. Listeners [who are] listening to the

podcast outside of Palestine won't know what it's like in

Khallet al-Daba'. So maybe you could describe the village -

describe growing up here in the village - you know, give people

an idea of what Khallet al-Daba' is like.

So as we know, like most of Palestine,

people in Palestine know the situation in Khallet al-Daba'

and Masafer Yatta that’s facing the forced eviction from the

Israeli occupation. And Khallet al-Daba', like other villages in

Masafer Yatta is under the threat of being evicted and

demolished. They have faced many demolitions since 2018. And even

[with] all these threats around them, they will not stop - they

will not ever give up against these violations. And even like,

before two days [ago], there was a confiscation of their tents,

the solidarity tents of the international presence, and the

attacks on [Jabba] and his brother - that he was like

having a broken leg in a demolition, before that - and

for today also they also attacked him with the same

injury so they were facing like the pain together. And but at

the end they will not stop all of this - like they will not

give up, [their] steadfastness against this occupation.

Can you tell us about what it's like day to day in Khallet

al-Daba' not knowing whether the the army will come or the

settlers will come... the pressures that the occupation

and the settlements put on the daily life here?

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

So this is the reality - that all of this

pressure [is] on them every day and as you said, like, no one

can stop the Israeli occupation of like his harassment of the

human rights. Even like the people outside - like the

countries that are against the violation of the human rights -

like even they cannot stop the occupation from doing all of

these violations. And also the new government that came and

that pushed also a lot on the Palestinians in order you know,

to let them suffer and to you know, to leave their lands. As I

said, okay, all of these things they do around us for the

pressure - but that will never make us weak and we will

continue and he's asking for an international presence in here

in the village, in order even to make for the demolition ...or

like if there is a demolition in a day, and there's like a

presence international and Palestinian, so he'd like it to

be a kind of hard thing for the Israeli forces in order to

demolition or to confiscate something. So these things can

help – as like a good example, two days ago when the Israeli

forces came and confiscated the tents there was no numbers [of

volunteers] and like in the easy way they just take everything

and they go. And he was even not expecting that much easy that

they will take everything where no one can stop them.

And yeah, just for context, so right now [as of December

2022] the number of international volunteers for

example is quite small. But does he think that - that we could do

more if there were larger numbers of people? Would he like

to see more people coming?

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

So for sure the international presence would help and with the

more international volunteers would be more important as you

said like he understands the situation that now in the end of

the year and there is Christmas and most of the people cannot be

here, everyone you need to go for some time home. And this is

like the time for occupation to do his crimes. Because no social

media can go out with the [volunteers] to know, and to

like spread awareness. So this is like the time for them to

push on the Palestinians here. And even though they have talked

with many organisations to have more volunteers, but like

unfortunately, like, there is no presence yet from the other

organisation[s].

And we're hoping that the listeners to this podcast will

share the information about what's happening here with their

comrades and, and maybe hearing the voices of people here will

inspire people to come. I wanted to ask about - you talked about

steadfastness on the land, and this form of resistance, which

is being connected to the land and remaining on the land,

despite all of the pressures. Could you talk about that? And

also, you know, whether you feel a particular connection to this

area - to the natural landscape?

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

So Khallet al-Daba' – the Israeli DCO [District

Coordinating Office – part of the infrastructure of the

occupation created by the Oslo agreement] knows and we have all

of the [legal] proofs that it [belongs to] the Palestinians.

And they are, you know, creating policies in order to evacuate

the people and steal the lands and even transfer the settlers

to stay here. So they have many plans. And he said, like, their

plans will lose because it's our land. And like, even they can

demolish, but they will not steal our hope and we’ll not go

out from the land. They will demolish our homes, but we will

not go out of the land. And okay, they are like pushing the

people and how they can do, but at the end, [the Palestinians]

can stay and steadfast against the occupation. And because you

know, the view of the people, how they will respond against

all of these violations that happen around them and all these

pressures, because the people also, you know, they just have

these lands, where afterwards can they go? Because afterwards

if they will be evicted, they will be refugees after this. So

they didn't have just like this piece of land to stay and they

own this land. So no other choices to go out or [anything

but] just to resist this occupation… So they defend the

land that belongs to them, and they want to stay on it, there

is no other choices, as you say.

And the Israeli state strategy in the area is not only

about Khallet al-Daba', it's also about the whole area of

Masafer Yatta. So do you think that if the Israeli state is

successful here in Khallet al-Daba' and – of course we hear

that the people here will resist and will not allow that to

happen – but the state will also attempt to evict other

communities here in Masafer Yatta?

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

So they have decisions to evict other

villages in Masafer Yatta. But like, as you said, like they

have the power to evict, and to break, and to demolish and to

destroy, but they didn't have the power to take the people out

of their lands.

Thank you very much. And yeah, if people want to learn

about how to get involved, people can have a look at the

Save Masafer Yatta website, and also palsolidarity.org, the

website of the International Solidarity Movement - and check

out the International Solidarity Movement on social media too.

But yeah, thank you very much. Is there anything else that

you'd like to say about the situation here?

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

[Speaks in Arabic then fades out}

So what he said like okay, Khallet al-Daba'

is the first village that's going to be evicted from the

decision that the court gave on the 28th of December. So he

spoke about the international presence about like how it was

the example – [the last time where] they confiscated the

tent. That was like even a simple thing, but when they will

demolish a house it will be [much] worse, for them it will

be a disaster, because it's like - a house is really hard to

rebuild again. So like given the plans - how to be an

international presence here - to be in the village. Because if

you would be out of the place that will be evicted, it will to

be hard for you to come in. For example, like the last

demolition that was here when they confiscated, the first

thing is they didn't see the international presence and

[therefore] that no one is taping, [so] they just started

to attack. When like we came in and arrived to the place, they

start you know with a with a simple thing to you know, divide

the people to not reach their machines or to not reach the

people who are confiscating. So this [volunteer presence is] how

to effect them to not use violence against the