The battle for land permeates every square meter of soil in Palestine. She sneaks deep into the mud, fills it with tears and sometimes blood, the body of any Palestinian is one with the territory. But there is a place where that fight is a daily, cyclical, perpetual fight. Where the dust crosses their throats so as not to abandon them. With the mud installed in his bowels, his health deteriorates day by day. In Masafer Yachta desert area of the foothills of the south hebron in the occupied West Bank, malviving 1,144 Palestinians distributed in 12 towns. They have been under immediate risk of eviction by the strength of the land that has seen them grow, of the land that feeds them.
“I am scared, and immense fear”, confesses a woman who hides under the name of Amalinhabitant of the small town of Jinba. “Is there a bigger word than fear to express how I feel?” she wonders. His testimony is one of hundreds collected by a new report from Doctors without borders (MSF) called ‘The unbearable life: health repercussions of Israeli forced eviction measures for residents of Masafer Yatta’. In this desert area, there is less and less infrastructure left standing. When in the 1980s the Israeli authorities declared that area “closed military zone”the lives of these natives changed forever.
“Making Life Impossible”
Now, the settler attacks surrounding areas join the violence of an Israeli army sent there with the mission of expelling them. “The Israeli authorities are making life miserable for the residents of Masafer Yatta with the aim of getting them to leave there,” he denounces. David Cantero, general coordinator of MSF in the occupied Palestinian territories. “This forced displacement is prohibited by international law humanitarian and could constitute a war crime”, he affirms for this newspaper. After years of threats, attacks and despair, the physical and mental health of these Palestinians is rapidly suffering. Especially since in May 2022, a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court removed all legal barriers to the forced displacement of the area’s native population.
Since then, MSF staff have registered a strong increased demand for mental health services among residents who experienced home invasions and demolitions. Following these incidents, by 2022 more than half of MSF patients had psychosomatic symptoms, one in four showed post-traumatic symptoms, and two in three described having depressive symptoms. “There is a constant fear and a great uncertaintyThey don’t know when their house, the school or the water tanks are going to be demolished,” denounces Cantero. “They are exposed to extremely high levels of humiliation and suffering“, Add.
deliveries on the way
Beyond the great damage to their mental health, the elderly, adults and children who resist in Masafer Yatta come across great difficulties accessing medical services. Patients are systematically denied entry to villages where MSF provides medical services if their identification document It indicates that they come from another place. “In this coercive environment created by the Israeli authorities”, describes Cantero, the ambulances attempting to access the area are delayed or even blocked. Arriving at the hospital becomes a Odyssey since many residents are retained at checkpoints and face long delays that affect their health.
“For one pregnant womanit all depends on luck: if she can reach the hospital [sin ser retornada en un punto de control], then you will be safe; if not, she will give birth on the way,” he says. Raghdainhabitant of Umm Qussa. “God help us,” she concludes. In all towns, the situation is criminal. “Imagines your son is sick and you want to take him to the doctor, but there is no car and the road is long,” he explains. Jamlaof Khairbet Al Fakih. “If you want to go on foot, you will need a minimum of four hours; then even you, who are healthy, will fall ill,” he states in the report.
Resist, suicide mission
Amid so much pressure, resisting is presented as a suicide mission. “The number of consultations between May and October 2022 has decreased by 30% and we attribute it to the fact that many people are no longer and to the difficulties of access”, denounces Cantero. The previous year, they lost one chronic patient per month, but in 2022, they lost an average of four. “There are many medically vulnerable patients from Masafer Yatta who have already left; are chronically ill, elderly, or women in the last stage of pregnancy who they don’t want to take the risk of being blocked in case of needing urgent medical attention”, he told EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, from the Prena Ibérica group.
But many are still there, in that mud that their ancestors carved and left them as inheritance. “The Palestinian population in general and that of Masafer Yatta in particular is incredibly resilientthey are doing everything possible to stay and live there, in their houses and in the tierra who says it belongs to them and their ancestors”, adds Cantero. Not bulldozers, not rocks thrown by radical settlers, not early-morning raids by young soldiers, not any decision by Israeli courts. nothing can beat loveto the twinning with their land. Yasserwho has lived his entire life in Al Halaweh, He will not go. “The plan is to kick us out of the area, but we will stay here. even if there is only one chicken left”, he defends.