Israelis tear down Palestinian homes at West Bank border
Israeli work crews have started demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes in an east Jerusalem neighbourhood in one of the largest operations of its kind in years.
The demolitions which started yesterday capped a yearslong legal battle over the buildings, built along the invisible line straddling the city and the occupied West Bank.
Israel says the buildings were erected too close to its West Bank separation barrier. Residents say the buildings are on West Bank land and the Palestinian Authority gave them construction permits.
In the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision clearing the way for the demolitions, Israeli work crews moved into the neighbourhood overnight. Massive construction vehicles smashed through the roofs of several buildings and large excavators were digging through the rubble. Israel’s public security minister Gilad Erdan said the Supreme Court ruled the illegal construction “constitutes a severe security threat and can provide cover to suicide bombers and other terrorists hiding among civilian population”. He said those who built houses along the separation barrier “took the law into their own hands”.
According to the United Nations, some 20 people already living in the buildings were being displaced, while 350 owners of properties that were under construction or not yet inhabited were also affected.
Hussein al-sheikh, head of the civil affairs department of the Palestinians Authority, called yesterday’s demolition a “crime” and demanded international intervention.
In Gaza, the territory’s Hamas rulers called for intensifying “resistance” to “the Zionist settlement project”.
“The increase in the occupation’s crimes against the residents of the holy city is a result of total American support,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the militant group.
Israel captured east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The international community considers both areas to be occupied territory, and the Palestinians seek them as parts of a future independent state.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers it part of its capital – a step that is not internationally recognised. The competing claims to the territory have created myriad legal complexities.
Israel built its separation barrier in the early 2000s in a step that it says was needed to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israel from the West Bank. The Palestinians say the structure is an illegal land grab.
Israel’s Supreme Court this month rejected residents’ final appeal, clearing the way for the demolitions.
According to Ir Amim, an Israeli advocacy group that promotes equality and coexistence in the city, Israel demolished 63 homes in the first half of this year, compared to 37 during the same period last year.