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Brief narrative |
House Demolitions in the West Bank, Including the Occupied City of Jerusalem, 2009 The Israeli Occupation policy targets the Palestinian shelter using demolitions and/ or seizures. The Israeli Occupation policy makers insist to deprive the Palestinians from their basic right, the right to residence. This has been the policy of the Israeli occupation since the Nakba in 1948, which is obvious since Israel was built on the ruins of 531 Palestinian villages and the eviction of more than 804766 Palestinians and again in 1967 but on a lesser rate alongside what is happening in Gaza nowadays.
The Occupied City of Jerusalem suffered most from the brutality of the Israeli Occupation policies, 969 house demolition or eviction cases were recorded since January 1, 2000 till the end of 2009 including 92 cases in 2009 which can be summarized as follows: • 77 residences were demolished in the Occupied City of Jerusalem. • Colonists, protected by different Israeli Occupation forces (Army, Police, Borders Guards, etc.), took over 15 Palestinian houses after forcing the landlords out. • 25 families were forced to demolish their own houses under threats of incarceration or huge penalties. • 10 houses were destroyed within the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem. • 630 Palestinians including 336 children became homeless. • The highest rates of house demolitions during 2009 were recorded during February, October, and November in the Old city, Silwan, Beit Hanina, and Sur Bahir. • 538 demolition orders were issued by Jerusalem Municipality against Palestinian houses.
LRC documented the demolition of 19 residences in the West Bank. The Israeli Occupation Authorities issued more than 950 halt-construction orders against Palestinian house. More than half of them, more precisely 538 orders, were issued against houses located within the boundaries of the Occupied City of Jerusalem and the rest were distributed in other cities of the West Bank including, Nablus 166 orders, Hebron 69 orders, Qalqiliya 68 orders, Salfit 30 orders, Tubas 28, Bethlehem 27, and last but not least 12 orders were issued in Jericho.
Furthermore, LRC also documented the demolition of 85 different structures, other than residences (including, barns, water reservoirs, stores, etc.) in the west bank and the Occupied City of Jerusalem. In addition, 108 halt construction orders were issued against similar structures. LRC condemns all the Israeli Occupation plots including (30/1 and 20/20) such plans call for the human rights violations, the ethnic cleansing policies, and deliberate evictions which tends to purify Jerusalem from its Palestinian residents in order to make it the capital of the Jewish State. Ultimately, it is easy for the ones who build the apartheid wall, the isolation wall, it is easy for them to devastate any sign of civilization including people shelter which provide them with safety and preserve their dignity.
LRC warns the International Community from the consequences of the Israeli policies and the destruction procedures in the west bank, especially in the Occupied city of Jerusalem in which 300,000 Palestinians live in, half of them live in houses that Israel consider illegally built. It is nothing strange for a country that knows nothing but power, the law of jungle that is condemned by any human rights organization or legislation including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international Humanitarian Law, fourth Geneva Convention, etc. which all the countries of the world are obliged to follow. The Israeli crimes in Palestine must be considered war crimes and the people responsible for these actions must be brought for persecution before the International Criminal Court immediately.
Original source |
