Recently John Minto penned an article called “From Raglan to Palestine” and was published in the NZ Herald.

Here are the actual facts behind the inhabitation of Massafar Yatta and the dispute over this area.

Background Information on Military Zone 918:

Firing Zone 918 was declared as a “Military Zone” and as an exclusive IDF training zone by the Military Commander of the area in 1980.

According to evidence collected by the IDF, which includes aerial photographs, prior to 1980, individuals entered the Firing Zone from time to time for pasturage and agricultural cultivation purposes. However, they did notreside in the territory of the Firing Zone permanently at any point in time (neither in caves nor in permanent structures). There were some locals who stayed in the Firing Zone only temporarily for short seasonal periods in order to cultivate the ground and shepherd their livestock.

Over the years, various legal proceedings took place in connection with illegal structures that were established after 1980 in the Firing Zone. The illegal construction prevented the IDF from using the area as a training zone because of concerns over the safety of the illegal trespassers.

As of today, there is still a case pending before the Israeli High Court of Justice (“HCJ”) concerning the aforementioned illegal construction (the case was brought before the court in 2013 by petitioners from the surrounding area). The court issued an interim injunction, according to which both parties must respect the current status quo until a final judgment is delivered. The IDF has accordingly refrained from evicting the inhabitants from the illegal structures, and as a result, cannot use the area for its declared purposes.  In contrast, the illegal construction in the area continues to expand. As a result, the Civil Administration in the West Bank has no choice but to enforce the court’s order and maintain public order in the area by demolishing new illegal structures that are not protected by the court’s interim injunction.

The HCJ recently ordered the parties to try to reach a compromise which would allow the IDF to practice in the Firing Zone without endangering the lives of the population from the surrounding area, and which at the same time would allow the population from the surrounding area to cultivate their crops and shepherd their livestock.

The IDF suggested several possible solutions in order to reach a compromise. For instance, it suggested that each party use the territory on different days of the week, i.e., that the IDF use the area for training purposes in accordance with its pre-set training program while the population from the surrounding area use the territory (for its own purposes) on Fridays, Saturdays, holidays, as well as additional optional days that would be subject to prior coordination and approval from the relevant authorities. Unfortunately, the latter proposal, along with other IDF proposals, were rejected by the petitioners.

In recent years, official Palestinian bodies have orchestrated the illegal construction in the Firing Zone in hopes of demonstrating their alleged control over the territory, which is located in the disputed area near Hebron. It should be made clear that this is by no means a “local initiative” of the local population. Rather, it is part of a well-organized strategic plan of the Palestinian Authority.

On August 10, 2020, the HCJ held a hearing in the aforementioned case. Once again, the court tried to encourage the parties to reach a compromise and the petitioners refused to accept any compromise offers.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel

Minto’s article

Minto’s “From Raglan to Palestine” is full of false tropes about Israel’s presence in the Middle East.

1. Israel is a colony of foreigners displacing the indigenous Palestinians.  In fact, the Jewish people have a history that predates any Arab claims over the land by thousands of years.
2. Palestinians are indigenous.  In fact, they are Arab conquerors.
3. Israel evicted 700,000 people in 1948.  In fact, the surrounding Arab nations invaded the newly created and UN sanctioned state of Israel and most of the people fled the conflict of their own volition and many were encouraged to do so by Arab leaders who thought that they could return once victory over the Jews was quickly won.
4. Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing.  In fact, 20 per cent of Israeli citizens are Arab.  We should ask, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where are your Jews?  Maybe we should ask the neighbouring Arab countries the same question, where are your Jews?  There used to be many.  Who is really guilty of ethnic cleansing?   

Minto’s article is behind a paywall on the NZ Herald site, so here is the text from the article:

During World War I, the New Zealand Government took a big area of land at Raglan from the local Tainui Awhiro people to build an airfield and bunker as part of the local war preparations.

The airfield was never built and, instead of returning the land to the people, the government used the Public Works Act in 1928 to give legal justification for the Crown keeping the land.

In 1967, local iwi were evicted from the land and forced to rebuild nearby with the Government then selling the land for the Raglan Golf Course.

In the early 1970s, Tainui Awhiro, led by Māori activist Eva Rickard, began the fight to have the land returned and after much protest, marches, petitions, lobbying, occupations and arrests on the golf links themselves they were finally successful in 1983. The land was handed back – but not until they had fought off a government “offer” requiring them to buy their land back from the Crown.

It was my first experience of being part, in a very small way, of a Māori land protest.

One of the important things I remember from Raglan, Bastion Pt and those early land protests were the messages of support and solidarity which came in from around the country and all over the world. Typically, these would be read out at the start of a protest hui and local iwi and supporters took great heart from them. They lifted spirits and warmed hearts when things sometimes seemed bleak.

We have a long way to go in decolonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand but we have come a significant way from the crude government behaviour at Raglan.

On the other side of the world, colonisation in Palestine is continuing apace since the mass expulsions of Palestinians from their land in 1948 (more than700,000 people evicted from their homes and land by Israeli militias from more than 500 villages with dozens of civilian massacres along the way).

Every day for the past 74 years, more Palestinians have been evicted from their land using all manner of spurious, creative justifications, backed by a court system run by the Israeli colonisers.

In the spotlight today are 12 Palestinian villages with more than 1000 people who face eviction from their land in an area of the South Hebron Hills called Masafer Yatta.

An Israeli court has given the Israeli army the go-ahead to evict the people and take over their land for a “live firing range”. The range isn’t needed. The Israeli army already has close to 18 per cent of the occupied West Bank set aside for firing zones – it’s just a commonly used pretext for land theft.

If the Israeli army is able to evict these people, it will be the largest eviction of Palestinians in over 50 years.

Like the early colonists in New Zealand, Israel wants the land without the people.

Masafer Yatta is Palestine’s Raglan Golf Course, albeit on a larger scale and as part of the longest-running military occupation in modern times.

The people of Masafer Yatta are fighting back with protests and vowing not to move despite five weeks of thuggish bullying by Israeli military with vehicles racing around the land in a massive show of force to intimidate and cower the people. Live bullets ripped through roofs of houses in the Khallat Al Dabea village during this “military training”.

The local Palestinian people are organising to defend their land and homes against Israel’s aggressive colonisation.

Young people are on the frontline. Co-founder of non-violent resistance group Youth of Samud (Sumud means “steadfastness”) Sami Hurraini was detained by the Israeli army in the hot sun for eight hours without food or water last week but is undaunted. Despite receiving a demolition order for their centre in Masafer Yatta, Hurraini says, “Of course Israel won’t stop us! We will rebuild the centre every time they demolish it.”

The least we can do is add our voices of international support and solidarity to the people of Masafer Yatta. We need to let them know they are not alone – just as similar messages gave heart to Māori fighting land theft here.

And we have to let Israel know there are accountabilities for ethnic cleansing and the war crimes associated with colonisation of Palestinian land.

Palestinians are not looking for our sympathy – they are looking for practical solidarity. If enough voices are raised around the world Israel will be forced to back down.

The strongest voice we have is the Government’s. We need to insist our Government uses it on behalf of all of us.

• John Minto is a political activist and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
• First published in NZ Herald