Posted on: June/July 2014

By Dale Sprusansky

Kareem Issa Jubran (l) and Amira Hass note that home demolitions in Area C of the West Bank are increasing. (Staff Photo D. Sprusansky)

 Two long-time observers of the Israeli occupation of Palestine appeared at the New America Foundation (NAF) in Washington, DC on April 3 to discuss Israel’s treatment of Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank. The event, organized by NAF’s new Israel-Palestine Initiative, was titled “Unrecognized and Unwanted: Demolition and Forced Displacement in Area C.”

Haaretz West Bank correspondent Amira Hass began the conversation by providing some background on Area C. Comprising 61 percent of the West Bank, she noted, Area C, which is under total Israeli civilian and military control, is home to approximately 300,000 Palestinians and 350,000- 400,000 Jewish settlers.

Area C’s borders are an inorganic creation of the Oslo II accords, Hass pointed out. “Area C is completely an artificial designation,” she stated. “It has nothing to with people’s organic development, the organic development of Palestinian communities.”

Israel is determined to rid Area C of Palestinians, Hass charged. “The Israeli intention is to guarantee that there are as few Palestinians as possible in this area so that they will be able to annex it to Israel,” she said. Indeed, Hass noted, Israeli soldiers have candidly told Palestinians living in Area C that they should move to Area A.

To advance this goal, Hass reported, Israel in recent years has increased the number of home demolitions it carries out in Area C. While one or two structures once were targeted for demolition, now entire communities are being destroyed, she said, adding, “There is more chutzpah to the orders.”

The Israelis legitimize these demolitions by saying that many Palestinian buildings are constructed without permits, Hass noted. But, she explained, Palestinians are forced to construct without permission because Israeli authorities rarely grant permits and refuse to develop master plans for Palestinian communities. (Israel is required to issue master plans for Palestine under international law.)

The sad irony, Hass said, is that Israel is always quick to issue master plans for illegal settlements in Area C. “Israeli authorities have developed thousands of master plans for Israeli settlers, but they do not develop master plans for Palestinian inhabitants,” she said.

Kareem Issa Jubran, field research director for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, used recent statistics to illustrate the unequal distribution of building permits. Between 2000 and 2012, he noted, only 211 of 3,700 Palestinian building permit requests were approved. During the same time span, however, more than 15,000 permits were issued for settlers.

Jubran explained that there is a similar disparity in access to water and electricity. As an example, he pointed to the Jordan Valley, where 10,000 Jewish settlers consume one-third of the available water and the remaining two-thirds is available to the area’s 2.5 million Palestinians.

Hass expressed outrage at Palestine’s unequal access to resources. “As an Israeli Jew, I’m filled with shame to see this discrepancy,” she said. “This is a policy of such blatant discrimination and double standards.”

While Israelis once felt some sympathy for Palestinians, Hass lamented that this is no longer the case. “Thirty or forty years ago I could sense some shame among the Israeli politicians and others,” she said. Young Israelis born in the settlements now believe they are entitled to more land and resources than the Palestinians, she lamented. “There is willful ignorance…and I see it everywhere,” Hass concluded.

Source:

http://www.wrmea.org/2014-june-july/human-rights-home-demolitions-and-land-seizures-in-area-c-of-the-west-bank.html