JERUSALEM, The Israeli occupation authorities demolished or seized a total of 851 Palestinian-owned structures during the first 11 months of this year, displacing 966 people, today said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The monthly rate of structures demolished or seized has slightly increased by one percent compared to the monthly average in 2021, it added in its monthly report on demolitions and displacement.
In November alone, said OCHA, a total of 123 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished or seized across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This is a 68 percent increase compared with the monthly average over the first 10 months of the year (73) and the second highest number this year.
A total of 108 of the structures targeted in November were in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military rule, 13 were in occupied East Jerusalem, and two were in Area B of the West Bank, which is under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security.
As a result, 109 people, including 58 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods or access to services of over 382 others were affected. All but two of the structures were targeted for lacking building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.
Six of the structures, all located in Area C communities, had been provided as humanitarian aid, at a value of 66,867 euros, said the UN agency. Another structure provided as humanitarian aid, at a value of 95,865 euros, received a demolition order.
Among the most affected from the demolitions in Area C were five Palestinian Bedouin or herding communities in the northern Jordan Valley and in the Jerusalem periphery, which accounted for 30 percent of the structures targeted during November.
Of the structures affected (demolished and seized) in Area C in November, eight structures were seized/confiscated by the Israeli authorities without warning, which prevented the owners from being able to object in advance. Seizure procedures do not oblige the authorities to provide prior notice, thus preventing affected people from objecting in advance. The Israeli Civil Administration, an arm of the military government, has referred to such practices as “a strategic tool”.
Additionally, in the Area C communities of al Maniya (Bethlehem), al Mashru’ Bedouins and Isteih (both in Jericho) and Jalbun (Jenin), the Israeli authorities demolished a total of 11 structures based on Military Order 1797, which provides only a 96-hour notice and very limited grounds for legally challenging a demolition. This resulted in the displacement of one household, comprising seven people, including three children, and affected another nine households, comprising 38 people, including 18 children. A total of 222 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished based on this order, since it came into effect in July 2019.
On 23 November, the Israeli authorities demolished Isfey al Faqua EU donor-funded school, which served 21 students from three communities in southern Hebron, after the Israeli High Court canceled a temporary injunction prohibiting demolition. Isfey al Fauqa is one of 13 herding communities comprising about 1,150 people, half of whom are children, and located in an area designated by the Israeli authorities as ‘Firing Zone 918’ in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. Additionally, on 29 November, the Israeli authorities issued a demolition order, with a 96-hour notice, against another EU donor-funded school in Khashem al Karem in southern Hebron. On 1 December, legal aid groups secured a court injunction against the demolition, which is valid for 21 days as long as no additional construction takes place at the school during this period.
In East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities demolished or forced people to demolish 13 structures, including nine homes, four of which were demolished by their owners to avoid the payment of fines imposed by Israeli authorities.
So far in 2022, the proportion of structures demolished or sealed off by their owners in East Jerusalem following the issuance of demolition orders, reached 53 percent, up from 27 percent in the previous five years. This is attributed to new Israeli legislation which limits the authority of Israeli courts to intervene and enables the Jerusalem Municipality to exert pressure on families to demolish their properties themselves.
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency