The Israeli army spokesman announced today, Sunday, May 8, 2022, that the army is currently carrying out military activity in the village of Rummana, near Jenin, to take measurements of the homes of the two perpetrators of Operation Elad in preparation for their demolition.
The policy of demolishing Palestinian homes is an old Israeli methodology since the establishment of the occupying state in 1948. Since the Nakba, the Israeli authorities have destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns.
The number of homes demolished by the occupation since then has been estimated at about 170,000, and in the Nakba itself, about one million Palestinians were displaced from the areas occupied in 1948, and who are now about 7 million around the world. The occupation authorities take several forms and justifications for demolishing Palestinian homes, most notably:
Demolition of facilities on the pretext of not obtaining a building permit in areas classified as (C).
Demolition on the pretext of Israeli security needs or the presence of the facility in military areas.
Demolition as a policy of collective punishment in the event of carrying out operations that lead to the death of Israelis.
collective punishment
The occupation authorities punish the entire family of the fighter, with the aim of deterring potential militants, and in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian resistance.
The demolition decision in some cases goes beyond the demolition of homes to the imposition of a ban on any new construction on the site of the demolished house and the confiscation of land in other cases.
Since 2004 until today, the occupation authorities have demolished 269 homes as a punitive measure that has displaced more than 1,300 people, including 161 minors.
2014: After the killing of the three Israeli settlers in Hebron by a Palestinian cell, the Israeli court resumed the decisions of punitive demolitions mainly after an Israeli military committee had issued a decision to stop the punitive demolitions as they were useless during the second Palestinian intifada known as the “Al-Aqsa Intifada.” (2000-2004).
The Israeli website "NRJ" quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing illegal Arab construction as a disease that must be eliminated, bragging that his government demolished 1,000 homes in 2016.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned against the European Union filing legal complaints against Israel for its demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes, some of which were funded by the Union, in the West Bank, especially between the Hebron Mountains and the Jordan Valley, including temporary homes, residential buildings and warehouses.
- According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, dozens of homes that were demolished are located within Area A, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, according to the Oslo Accords.
August 18, 2017: Dozens of Jerusalemites set up a sit-in tent in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, to reject the policy of displacement and house demolitions.
displacement policy
The representative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi, stated that the occupation’s goal of the policy of demolition is to displace the Palestinians, including 7,000 citizens from the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood and 1,500 citizens from the Al-Bustan neighborhood to establish the so-called holy Jewish basin in preparation for the demolition of Al-Aqsa and the construction of the alleged temple.
- July 8, 2021: During the daily press conference from the permanent headquarters in New York, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations read out a statement in which he said, "Such actions are contrary to international law, and could undermine the chances of establishing a contiguous (geographically) viable Palestinian state. ".
- He added that "the Secretary-General - in fact - is deeply concerned about the demolition of Palestinian properties in the Bedouin community in Homseh al-Baqei'a in Area C in the occupied West Bank."
Dujarric indicated that the Secretary-General "renews his call to the Israeli authorities to stop demolitions and confiscation of Palestinian property in the occupied West Bank."
November 1, 2021: According to a report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the year 2021 witnessed the confiscation of 311 facilities (56% of all targeted buildings in Area A) either without warning or by giving the owners a short notice term, using several military orders that preclude the ability of persons to object in advance to the decision.
- The report indicated that September 2021 witnessed the lowest levels of demolition and displacement since 2017, but the demolition or confiscation of facilities increased by 21% in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2020, and the number of displaced persons increased by 28%.
- The OCHA report stated that in September, the Israeli authorities demolished, or forced residents to demolish their homes, and confiscated 8 Palestinian-owned facilities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
This resulted in the displacement of two people, and affected the livelihoods of about 50 people or access to services.
Since the beginning of 2022: the demolition of 5 homes, 4 of which belong to the Jaradat family, in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank.
Notable demolitions
August 18, 2014: The demolition of 3 houses in Hebron belonging to the cell that carried out the kidnapping and killing of the three settlers on June 12, 2014.
January 5, 2016: The home of the martyr Bahaa Alyan was demolished in Jerusalem, alleging that he and a colleague shot him inside an Israeli bus, killing 3 Israelis.
January 9, 2016: The demolition of a house in Ramallah for the martyr Muhannad Al-Halabi, the perpetrator of a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem, which resulted in the killing of two Israeli soldiers, and many attribute to him that he was the spark for the popular uprising in 2015.
March 7, 2019: Demolition of the house of the prisoner, Assem Barghouti, in the town of Kober, north of Ramallah, on charges of carrying out a shooting attack on a military outpost that killed two Israeli soldiers and seriously wounded others.
british emergency law
- As for the legal cover on which the occupation authorities rely, it is the emergency law that was established and used by the British colonialism in Palestine in 1945, and it remained in force even after the establishment of the State of Israel, which is still using it against the Palestinians in the country under various security pretexts.
The occupation is based on Article 119 of the 1945 British Emergency Act, which states that home demolitions are an administrative procedure to be applied without trial and without the need to show evidence.
Article 64 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires the occupying power to change the laws in the occupied territories, which do not meet the minimum humanitarian guarantees stipulated in the agreement.
On this basis, Israel is obligated to repeal Article 119 because its provisions are incompatible with basic guarantees of justice, the prohibition of collective punishment, and the protection of civilian property.