Palestinians Right To Housing
Since the beginning of the Pandemic, 500 Palestinian living structures have been demolished.
By Yara Younes
Israel continues to violate International law and is still not held accountable for their actions as punitive demolitions constitute collective punishment and are prohibited under International Law.
In 2019 a total of 621 Palestinian living structures were demolished in the West Bank displacing 914 Palestinians; that is a 35 and 95 per cent increase, compared with 2018 according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
From 2006 till August 2020, 1,602 Palestinian residential buildings have been demolished in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, making 6,970 people and 3,501 minors homeless according to B’Tselem an Israeli human rights NGO in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) there are four categories of demolitions:
- Punitive demolitions: Houses demolished as punishment for the actions of people associated with the houses.
- Administrative demolitions: Houses demolished for lack of a building permit, which are nearly impossible to obtain by Palestinians. This happens in ‘Area C’ and in East Jerusalem. It is important to point out that in almost all cases, Palestinians have no choice but to build “illegally.”
- Land-clearing operations/Military demolitions: Houses demolished by the IDF in the course of military operations for the purposes of clearing off a piece of land (for whatever reason), achieve a military goal or to kill wanted persons as part of Israel’s policy of extrajudicial executions..
- Undefined demolitions: These include mainly demolitions resulting from land-clearing operations and removal of Palestinian populations.
In December 2019 Israel demolished the Al-Araqib Village for the 169th time and seized it’s residents belongings including beds, chairs, and other furniture leaving them without a shelter as an attempt to force Palestinians to migrate.
Israeli settlers with the support of authorities armed forces evict Palestinians from their homes, around 84 Palestinians were forced out and turned over their homes to settlers.
July 2019 Israeli authorities forces evicted Ilham Siyam and her family after the Jerusalem district court ruled in favour of the Israeli settler organization ELAD on June 12 giving them the ownership of the Siyam family house, vacated apartment, a store and a courtyard.
