The Israeli military demolished three water cisterns and two wells in the Khashem Ad Daraj – Hathaleen region on Tuesday, December 14th . The military gave no reason for the destruction of the wells and cisterns.
The demolitions follow a pattern of destruction of Palestinian property by the Israeli military in Area C, as defined by the Oslo Accords. Rather than delivering the demolition orders to the residents of the villages in the area, the Israeli army instead left the orders under a stone two days earlier.
The demolished cisterns and wells supplied drinking water to the villagers as well as their sheep and goats. The wells were up to 300 meters deep and over 70 years old, pre-dating the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian Territories. International Humanitarian Law and Israeli Military law state that structures created before 1967 are protected and not to be destroyed by the occupying power.
The villages are in the southern West Bank, less than 15 km from the Dead Sea. This hilly region is arid, and receives an average yearly rainfall of between 150 – 250 mm.
Shepherding of sheep & goats is the primary source of food and income for the villages in this area. The destruction of the water wells & cisterns directly impacts their livelihood.
Israeli military bulldozers have leveled a school and forced dozens of families living in tents near the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) to evacuate.
The Israeli bulldozers entered the village of Tana early on Wednesday, razing the structures. A Red Cross facility was also severely damaged in the demolition activity, witnesses told Press TV.
The Red Cross building reportedly provided service to the impoverished residents of the village.
The Palestinian Authority refused to condemn the demolitions. Israeli authorities said the structures had been built without the required permits.
Palestinians argue that their efforts to construct a free and independent Palestinian state will prove fruitless as long as Tel Aviv continues its destruction plans.
Figures from the Israeli non-governmental organization, Bimkom, reveal that nearly 95 percent of applications lodged by Palestinians for building permits are denied.
The Israeli non-profit organization also noted that Israel’s Civil Administration only grants some 12 permits a year.
Israel has demolished 995 Palestinian homes and displaced 5,783 persons, including 3,109 children, in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) since the start of 2000, according to the Palestinian Information Center.
3 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Friday, hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians marched together in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem against recent brutality toward the village by the Israeli government: house demolitions by Israeli authorities, a siege on entrances to the neighborhood, and police misconduct with local residents. This is the first joint protest to be held in Issawiya, a neighborhood that has experienced much turmoil in recent years.
Like most Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, Issawiya is neglected by the municipality. Portions of its land have been annexed at different times to build up Jewish neighborhoods, roads, and parks, and the villagers suffer from continuous harassment by the police. Within the last month Israeli authorities have significantly increased the number of house demolitions, set up barricades and roadblocks, and repeatedly entered the area to patrol and issue fines for minor vehicular defects.
There is only one main entrance now open to traffic going in and out of the village; the rest having been sealed off by the authorities with concrete barricades. Israelis joined the residents in solidarity and walked through the neighborhood, ending the procession at its other end where a narrow opening in the concrete barricades is wide enough to allow only one or two people to pass at a time.
Despite that the protest was non violent, after it had ended and Israeli and International activists had left, Israeli border police entered the neighborhood and fired tear gas grenades. Once again, Occupation forces brutally punished any form of resistance by the residents.
26 November 2010 | Stella, International Solidarity Movement
Palestinian mother sitting with her kids on the rubble of her homeHow can a kid understand Israeli demolitions if neither adults can?A tent with view on the ruins of a 200 metres house
In the last few days, with a wave of demolitions, Israeli bulldozers have spread destruction and despair in the villages across the West Bank: in Qarawat Bani Hassan near Salfeet, in al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, in Hizma, near Jerusalem, in Khirbet Yarza, east of Tubas, and in the South Hebron Hills.
Yesterday I went to the village of al-Rifayaia, east of Yatta in South Hebron, where at 8:15 AM Israeli forces had demolished a house that had been home to two families of twenty people (16 of them minors).
I arrived there around 1 PM, to at least show the ISM’s support and to document what had happened.
Many people were gathering around the rubble to support the two families that had lost their houses. The many kids around had disoriented expressions while they were playing on the ruins of what used to be a nice 200 square meter house.
The women, even if they still had their eyes wet and red, did not forget hospitality and I was immediately offered a cup of sweet tea. Everybody encouraged me to take many pictures as if they wanted to show to the world all the details of their unjust distress.
A young man explained that his two brothers, with their families, were living in the house that was demolished. One of them was sitting not too far from us with a somber, worried expression. He won’t be able to rebuild a new house for his family. In fact, he has no permit to go and work in Israel and his economic situation is very bad.
The Israeli bulldozers didn’t even let them remove their belongings before demolishing the house.
The Red Cross visited them just before me and brought a couple of big tents, some plastic chairs, two camp stoves and a few boxes of humanitarian aid. Not enough to help them now that the cold winter is coming. I was asked if I could help them in any way, but unfortunately I could only assure them that the news about what had happened to them would be spread so that more people in the world would know how the Palestinian people are forced to live.
After a while Hamed Qawasmeh arrived. He works for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He explained to me that there are not many organizations that help to rebuild houses that Israel demolishes, and that the UN can only provide some services to mitigate the harsh situation of the two homeless families.
While I talk with the UN representative, not too far from the ruins of the house the men of the family put up the two tents that the Red Cross had donated. At least these two homeless families, during the next cold winter months, will be surrounded by the warm support of their relatives and their community.
25 November 2010 |ICHAD & Al Jazeera
Following the demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley yesterday, this morning the Civil Administration accompanied by large Army and Border Police forces demolished a mosque in the Jordan Valley and several structures in the South Hebron Hills.
Yesterday the Ministry of Interior demolished a Palestinian home in A Thuri, East Jerusalem, displacing a family of 7 including 4 children. The family had been living in their 60m/sq home for more than 8 years and were unsuccessful in years of court battles to resist the demolition. Settlers moved into another Palestinian home close-by on the Mount of Olives after a Palestinian family lost court battles to remain in their home and were evicted from the premises 3 years ago. A new court ruling this week gave the green-light to the settler take-over.
Today Civil Administration representatives along with armed border police forces destroyed a mosque in the East Tubas Bedouin village in the Jordan Valley, following the demolition of 4 structures displacing a family of 12 yesterday in the neighbouring village of Abu Al Ajaj. The recent escalation in the Jordan Valley comes after a spate of settler aggression over the last month amid attempts by the Massu’a settlement to annex adjacent lands from the Abu Al Ajaj community, in the Al Jiftlik area.
Jordan Valley Solidarity have requested volunteer assistance both with recovery and salvage from the recent demolitions, as well as to provide accompaniment for local communities at risk of settler violence. For further details visit Jordan Valley Solidarity.
Earlier this week a Palestinian family was forcibly evicted from their home by settlers in Jabal Mukabber, East Jerusalem, and the Bedouin village of Al Arakib in the Negev was demolished for the seventh time.
