"The jeep that takes us to Umm al-Khair rocks from side to side, as if we were on a boat in open water. At the wheel is Ali Awad, a Palestinian journalist from the nearby village of Tuba. Almost every formal route connecting Tuba to Umm al-Khair has been destroyed by the Zionist state; what remains is a single dirt road, crudely carved through the hills of the southern West Bank's semi-desert of Masafer Yatta by the local residents themselves."
"Few vehicles can make the journey: tractors during the planting season or when feed must be hauled in for livestock; military vehicles, which patrol the area day after day; and the occasional car engineered for rough terrain. Ali's jeep is one of them. Ali has brought us here to show us how the Zionist state is advancing its colonial project on the ground, turning Umm al-Khair, piece by piece, into what can only be described as an island encircled by a colony."
"He glances into the rear view mirror, scanning for soldiers. Nothing, the road is clear. He takes a drag from his cigarette and presses down on the accelerator. "It's illegal to be here," he tells us. In May 2022, Israel's High Court authorized the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta, designating 3,600 hectares as a "closed military zone" called Firing Zone 918. Anyone found inside it - especially non-residents - faces detention and potentially deportation."
Umm al-Khair is accessible only via a single rough dirt road after formal routes were destroyed, forcing residents to carve a path through the semi-desert. Only tractors, military vehicles, and specially engineered cars can travel it. Journalists and residents risk detention to document conditions. In May 2022 Israel's High Court approved mass expulsions by designating 3,600 hectares of Masafer Yatta as Firing Zone 918, a closed military zone; anyone inside faces detention or deportation. Israeli flags and signage mark nearby Carmel, a settlement that began as a military outpost in 1980 and was formalized in 1981.
Read at Truthout
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