JERUSALEM, February 14, 2017 (WAFA) – A rise in Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2016 indicate a policy to reduce Palestinian presence in these areas, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said on Tuesday.
Israel cites lack of a building permit as the pretext for the demolition.
According to B’Tselem, the Israeli authorities demolished 88 residential buildings and 48 other structures in occupied East Jerusalem in 2016, 15 of them demolished by their owners to avoid paying high cost that will be imposed on them by the West Jerusalem municipality if it carried out the demolitions, rendered homeless 295 people, including 160 minors.
“Israeli authorities continued their discriminatory policies against East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents as part of an overall policy designed to cause Palestinians to leave the city. Their actions are also part of efforts to achieve a demographic and geographic reality that would frustrate any future attempt to question Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem,” said the Israeli rights group.
In the West Bank, specifically in Area C, which is under full Israeli control, Israel demolished 274 residential buildings and 372 non-residential ones rendering homeless 1,134 individuals, including 591 minors, said B’Tselem, which monitors Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“These demolitions are indicative of Israel’s efforts to Palestinian presence in the areas it seeks to take over, taking advantage of planning and administrative tools to that end,” it said.
“The extent of devastation Israel wreaked in 2016 in the West Bank alone excluding East Jerusalem outstripped the number of homes it demolished in 2014 and 2015 combined,” it said.
B’Tselem said that the Israeli authorities cynically cite illegal construction as a pretext for the demolitions, “while at the same time authorities are the ones that prohibit legal construction by Palestinians. They avoid promoting or approving development and construction plans for Palestinians and then say they cannot issue building permits because there are no plans.”
It said hardly any construction permit was issued in Area C in response to applications by Palestinians.
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