Demolition of Palestinian homes – last week’s excuse was to create Israeli “nature reserves,” this week a “firing zone” – causes now-homeless Mahmoud Hamamdi to ask, “Who is the terrorist: the one who builds a house or the one who demolishes a house?”
During the first week of September 2019 Israeli forces in the Palestinian Occupied Territories killed Palestinian children, destroyed Palestinian property, razed farmland, stormed a Palestinian village, and assaulted, detained, and abducted Palestinians… In other words: it was pretty much like every other week. Read the details:
The lives of Palestinians are constantly disrupted: Israeli military and settlers show up daily to abduct, demolish, harass, or otherwise bring hardship. Two days of news reports: Israeli soldiers abduct numerous Palestinians, demolish homes, Israeli war planes attack areas, etc… the daily news that US media organizations don’t tell Americans
The Israeli occupation is a constant, chilling presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and among Palestinians living in Israel: children and adults are routinely abducted, Israeli housing is built on Palestinian land while Palestinian homes are demolished – just a few examples from one “average” day.
When 3 member states in the United Nations tried to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s act of demolishing Palestinian homes – which contravenes international law – the United States blocked the measure.
Palestinians built homes; years later Israel built a wall. Now Israel decrees that the homes must be demolished because they are too close to the wall.
The bedouins in Khan al-Ahmar are considered an “existential threat” to the Jewish State; Israel plans to demolish the village and relocate the entire tribe to a location that denies the people their ancient culture. Israel’s Supreme Court has green-lighted the process, which will enable the state to cut the West Bank into pieces – although it may be a war crime.
Israel’s refusal to issue building permits, and calculated policies of expropriation, force Palestinians to build “illegally,” often resulting structures being demolished and families left destitute; meanwhile, Jewish-only neighborhoods spring up on Palestinian land.
Every day of the year, the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) reports on incidents that Palestinians endure. It isn’t hard to detect patterns: home demolitions, land confiscation, abduction, and mistreatment of political prisoners are daily occurrences. Below are just some of the accounts reported by IMEMC for April 10, 2019. Each includes background information on the issue and part of the article.
With a 4% approval rate on building permit applications from Palestinians, and application costs in the tens of thousands of dollars, a large number of Palestinians make the risky decision to build without a permit. When Hassan Othman’s “illegal” home was discovered, he saved part of the $80 thousand demolition fee by hiring equipment to do it himself.
Israel has demolished over 48,000 Palestinian structures since 1967