Palestinian caves by Basel Adra
Part of the distinction of Masafer Yatta from other parts of Palestine is the presence of ancient caves in it, which have become an essential part of our identity. Very few caves were found in the area as a natural phenomenon, and most of them were built by our ancestors.
Some of these caves are hundreds of years old. They used axes and primitive equipment to dig these caves in the rocks inside the land. They would dig caves for the family and a cave for the livestock, and this is how they inhabited for much of their lives.
But with the development of life and the multiplication of families, the population has become in need of other housing and spaces that are sufficient for housing. Also, due to natural conditions, many of the caves are no longer inhabitable, for reasons such as rocks falling from the ceiling and water flowing into some of them during the winter.
Residents began to build rooms and tents in order to expand the space for families that expand when young people get married. Also, some families wanted to develop and have a home and not only an underground cave.
In 2004, the occupation issued a decision whereby the Civil Administration can confiscate any movable building without the need for notifications. They just come suddenly and expel any family that lives in a tent or caravan. They throw their belongings outside, and the soldiers and workers dismantle that tent or caravan and confiscate it.
In 2019, another racist law was developed to speed up the demolition process, known as the 96-hour law. This law aims that from the moment a Palestinian receives the demolition notice that his house will be demolished after ninety-six hours. Attempts to appeal against this notice are impossible.
Therefore, the residents of Masafer Yatta have continued to possess these ancient caves, and they are always the only shelter for them after the house demolitions and the crazy confiscations. It is difficult for the army to demolish these caves because they are very ancient and were built underground. They are a symbol of people’s steadfastness and the great challenge facing the ethnic cleansing that the occupation intends to carry out in Masafer Yatta.
The Occupation Authorities refuse to give any opportunity to the residents to build legally, even though the residents build on their own lands, in which they have ownership documents for in 19 villages that the Occupation Authorities refuse to recognize and want to forcefully displace the Palestinians from it.
The occupation has been trying for 40 years to displace the Palestinians by making their lives difficult and doubling their suffering every year. Demolishing homes, schools, sheep pens, bathroocavesms, destroying roads, preventing services and horrific settler attacks, and preventing any services that facilitate life such as electricity and water networks.
In spite of all this, the Palestinians claim ngto their and fields and with their sheep, trying to continue living and resisting the crimes of the occupation.
However, on May 4, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Occupation unjustly ruled that the residents of Masafer Yatta be displaced by the occupation army under the pretext that these villages are in the “firing zone.”
This decision means that the soldiers are not satisfied with only demolishing houses and so on, but now they are now able to force people to leave their caves and put them on military buses if necessary in order to ethnically cleanse them