Home demolitions spike ahead of annexation
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian-owned structures in the South Hebron Hills on 3 June 2020
Maureen Clare Murphy reports in The Electronic Intifada:
Israel’s formal annexation of occupied land may be put on hold, but the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank marches on.
Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the territory spiked last month, according to the human rights group B’Tselem. Nearly 45 homes were destroyed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem – which Israel has already annexed in contravention of international law.
Eight of the Jerusalem homes destroyed “were torn down by their owners, after they received a demolition order from the municipality and wished to avoid paying the cost of the demolition and fines to the municipality,” B’Tselem stated.
More than 50 people, including some 30 children, were displaced by the demolitions in East Jerusalem. In the rest of the West Bank, 100 people, half of them children, were left homeless. In addition to the destroyed homes, Israeli occupation forces razed more than 35 non-residential structures last month.
B’Tselem published the above video of Israel’s Civil Administration – actually a unit of its military – demolishing five shelters belonging to the Abu Dahuk family near Jericho in the Jordan Valley on 3 June.
Occupation forces also confiscated solar panels, refrigerators and water containers.