We call for a global mobilization on September 16 – 19 in solidarity with Palestinians in Masafer Yatta to support their steadfastness and resistance to apartheid Israel’s intensified ethnic cleansing.
We start our mobilization on September 16, the 40th anniversary of the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, committed in 1982 by a fascist Christian Phalange militia in Lebanon under direct supervision of the occupying Israeli army at the time. From our refugees still struggling for their right to return to their homes to those of us threatened by expulsion today, Indigenous Palestinians everywhere demand an end to Israeli impunity.
The Global Days of Action will culminate ahead of the UN General Assembly debates starting on September 20. From Masafer Yatta, we join the rest of Palestinian civil society inurging the UN to investigate Israeli apartheid.
Israel’s settler-colonial project has installed a brutal apartheid regime to expel us and take our land.
The forcible expulsion of more than 1,000 of us living in eight villages in Masafer Yatta, approved by the Israeli Supreme Court in May this year, would be the largest mass ethnic cleansing carried out by Israeli apartheid since 1967.
Already decades ago, Israeli military occupation classified eight Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta as a military Firing Zone. Israeli military jeeps, tanks, helicopters, guns and soldiers are free to shoot live ammunition among Palestinian homes, terrorizing familes, especially children. Since June 21, the villages of Jinba, Al-Markez and Al-Majaz have been under permanent siege and the threat of Israeli bullets. This is not to mention the daily acts of terror and violence perpetrated against Palestinians of all ages by fanatic Jewish-Israeli settler groups.
As with other racist, colonial and apartheid societies, denying the oppressed and Indigenous communities their right to education is a central pillar in the oppressors’ attempt to maintain supremacy.
Students and teachers in Masafer Yatta are particularly threatened and are sounding the alarm. On August 18, as students prepared to return to class, the schools of Jinba and Al-Fakheet, two major schools in Masafer Yatta, received demolition orders from the Israeli occupation authorities. They have also prevented both students and teachers from reaching their schools. They’ve confiscated cars transporting teachers to school, violently intimidated students and teachers, and stopped classes for hours every day.
This adds to other apartheid practices and policies, including home demolitions, water apartheid, and ongoing land theft.
Let’s stand together to #DefendMasaferYatta.
Join the growing demand that the UN take action to dismantle Israeli apartheid.
On the Global Days of Action, let the UN know that it is time to hold Israel accountable, re-activate its anti-apartheid mechanisms and impose lawful and targeted sanctions, as it did to end apartheid in South Africa.
On September 16-19, let’s take the lead from Palestinians protesting in Masafer Yatta, organize and reach out to all on students and teachers unions to defend the schools and education in Masafer Yatta and demand an end to Israeli apartheid, settler-colonialism and military occupation:
- Organize/join protests, vigils and rallies across the world and shout #UNinvestigateApartheid.
- Be inspired by Masafer Yatta and build a solidarity tent in your towns and cities.
- Join the social media storms and use the hashtags #DefendMasaferYatta and #UNinvestigateApartheid.
- Pressure governments and parliaments to take action, including lawful and targeted sanctions and military-security embargos, and hold those who are complicit with apartheid Israel to account.
Strengthen and build BDS campaigns to hold corporations and institutions enabling Israeli apartheid accountable for their complicity. Check out how to build BDS campaigns in support of Masafer Yatta here.
Be inspired by the sumud [steadfastness] of the residents of Al-Fakheet, Al-Markez and Al-Tuwani, who have rebuilt their homes after Israeli bulldozers reduced them to rubble several times since the start of 2022, and the students and teachers who defy repression, determined to build a future of freedom, justice and equality.
Please communicate to us any enquiries and actions you plan to organize at endethniccleansing@riseup.net
Signed by:
Youth of Sumud
Defend Masafer Yatta committee
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC)
BDS National committee (BNC)
Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions
The Land Defense Coalition