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New peak in arbitrary razing of Palestinian homes
The Israeli government should immediately stop the arbitrary destruction of Palestinian homes and other property in the West Bank and compensate the people it has displaced, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli authorities destroyed 141 Palestinian homes and other buildings in July 2010, the largest number in any month since at least 2005, and have already carried out dozens of demolitions in August.
"While Israel is demolishing more and more Palestinian homes, it continues to subsidize the Jewish settlements nearby," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel has flouted international law not only by supporting settlements on occupied territory, but also by erasing longstanding Palestinian communities next door."
In one example, Israeli military authorities recently demolished Al Farisiye, a farming community of roughly 135 people in the northern Jordan Valley that had been inhabited by Palestinians for generations. On July 19, Israeli authorities demolished 76 structures in Al Farisiye, displacing approximately 113 people, including 52 children. The authorities had ordered them to evacuate on June 24, emphasizing that their homes had been built in a "closed military zone," according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). While the area indeed had been designated as "closed" since the late 1960s, Al Farisiye village was established before the designation and has been inhabited until the present.
Israeli authorities delivered further eviction orders on the same grounds on July 31, and then on August 5, razed 10 more structures that housed 22 people and demolished 27 emergency tents that displaced residents had set up after the first round of demolitions, OCHA reported.
The Israeli Civil Administration Authority (CAA) acknowledged in an email on August 8 that property had been destroyed but said that at most 10 buildings had been demolished. It was not clear if the spokesman was referring to the demolitions on August 5, July 19, or both. Human Rights Watch observed large numbers of demolished buildings at the site. Some of the Palestinian families whose homes and property Israeli authorities destroyed had been living in their village for at least 50 years.