By Hagai El-Ad B’Tselem Executive Director
In late June – as always, with High Court approval – Israeli troops were sent to train for several weeks in Masafer Yatta, an area in the South Hebron Hills. Israel uses such manoeuvres to advance its policy of forcibly transferring Palestinians from the area, by making their lives an ongoing nightmare.
During the army’s training a bullet hit the roof of a Palestinian home in the village of Khallet a-Dabe’. Luckily, no one was hurt.
The military quickly declared that, based on a “thorough inquiry”, the bullet could not possibly have been fired by the troops.
The next day, B’Tselem’s field researcher in the South Hebron Hills went to the village. His name is Nasser Nawaj’ah and, unlike the military, he and his colleagues at B’Tselem are, actually, thorough.
Nasser climbed up to the roof and found something the military couldn’t, or didn’t want to: a bullet from a heavy machine gun. A bullet of that type could only have been fired by the military, probably from a heavy tank machine gun participating in the manoeuvre. The military lied. Nasser’s investigation proved that.
Fast-forward to Sunday this week, the day before yesterday, when one “Captain Yassin” – an ISA officer – “asked” Nasser to “stop causing trouble”. I suppose that when he said “trouble” he was thinking of the kind of research Nasser conducted in Khallet a-Dabe’.
How did Nasser find himself before “Captain Yassin”? Soldiers entered Nasser’s home in Susiya and arrested him in the middle of the night. He was then held, handcuffed, in a military camp for some 12 hours before being taken for a “conversation” with the ISA officer. That’s what Israel does with a Palestinian detainee who needs “softening” before the ISA proceeds to threaten him.
For the military, the police, the ISA, the settlers, the judges, the politicians and the media mouthpieces – the truth itself is trouble. Nasser’s work causes trouble. B’Tselem causes trouble. Because we expose their apartheid policies and name them for what they are. Because we’re heard loud and clear by anyone willing to listen.
We, at B’Tselem, have a clear message for “Captain Yassin” and for the entire system above him: Get used to our kind of trouble.
We stand fully behind our team. We will not stop documenting and exposing the truth – in Masafer Yatta or anywhere else. Does that give you trouble? Get used to it.
We will continue to expose your lies, collect testimonies, and capture footage. We will continue to tell the truth about what is really going on between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. We will continue to connect the dots, so everyone can see the violence that is woven into Israel’s policy –so that reality here will fundamentally change.
Nasser – and our whole team with him – will continue to cause trouble. Because indeed there is trouble here. Real trouble, and it’s huge. It’s called apartheid. And we’re here to dismantle it.
This is from a circular from the Director General of B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation. You can find their website with other reports of the oppression of Palestinians on the West Bank, here. You can also subscribe to circulars and news.
