Posted on: May 4th 2013
You are here
Life Under Occupation (48)
Posted: March 14, 2009
Hanan F Abdul Rahim, Laura Wick, Samia Halileh, Sahar Hassan-Bitar, Hafedh Chekir, Graham Watt, Marwan Khawaja
The Countdown to 2015 intervention coverage indicators in the occupied Palestinian territory are similar to those of other Arab countries, although there are gaps in continuity and quality of services across the continuum of the perinatal period. Since the mid-1990s, however, access to maternity facilities has become increasingly unpredictable. 
Mortality rates for infants (age ≤1 year) and children younger than 5 years have changed little, and the prevalence of stunting in children has increased. Living conditions have worsened since 2006, when the elected Palestinian administration became politically and economically boycotted, resulting in unprecedented levels of Palestinian unemployment, poverty, and internal conflict, and increased restrictions to health-care access. Although a political solution is imperative for poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and the universal right to health care,
women and children should not have to wait. Urgent action from international and local decision makers is needed for sustainable access to high-quality care and basic health entitlements.
Introduction
Maternal and child health are important components of present and future population health in the occupied Palestinian territory, where roughly 40% of the
population are women of reproductive age and children younger than 5 years.1 Although the economic situation had been on a downward trend since the second intifada (popular uprising against occupation) in 2000,2 living conditions worsened after the elections in January, 2006, which gave the political party Hamas control of the Palestinian Legislative Council and brought about a political and economic boycott by several countries in the international community.3Poverty in the occupied Palestinian territory has risen sharply, and more than a third of the population is classified as food insecure.4
The Israeli-imposed system of several hundred checkpoints and barriers to movement has severely restricted access to services,5 and these restrictions can be especially crucial in perinatal and child-health emergencies.6
In this report, we discuss the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory with respect to the fourth and fifth Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health, respectively, and we use the Countdown to 20157 indicators to assess coverage of priority interventions.
However, because coverage indicators alone do not indicate the complexity of maternal and child health-care provision in a specific context, 8 we describe the broad context of service provision, which is characterized by challenges common to many low-income and middle-income countries, such as poverty, poor nutrition, and an overburdened public-health system, but which is also unique in terms of the presence of a military occupation and a state of protracted conflict.9
Within the constraints of the present economic and political conditions, we propose changes for improvement of the services provided to women and children in the short term, and we make long-term recommendations that presuppose a conducive political situation.
References
1 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Palestinian family health survey, 2006: preliminary report. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2007.
2 World Bank. West Bank and Gaza economic developments and prospects —March, 2008. West Bank and Gaza: World Bank, 2008.
http://go.worldbank.org/A6Y2KDMCJ0 (accessed Dec 1, 2008).
3 Stanforth R. Poverty in Palestine: the human cost of the financial boycott. April 2007. Oxfam briefing note. Oxford, UK: Oxfam International Secretariat, 2007. http://www.oxfam.de/download/Palestinian_Aid_Crisis.pdf (accessed March 31, 2008).
4 Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and United Nations World Food Program. Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis. Jerusalem: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and United Nations World Food Program, 2007.
5 UN Relief and Works Agency. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), November 2007. UNRWA emergency appeal 2008. Gaza Strip: United Nations Relief and Works Agency, 2008. http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/appeals/2008-appeal.pdf (accessed Feb 11, 2008).
6 Murray S, Pearson S. Maternity referral systems in developing countries: current knowledge and future research needs. Soc Sci Med 2006; 62: 2205–15.
7 Countdown Coverage Writing Group and on behalf of the Countdown to 2015 Core Group. Countdown to 2015 for maternal, newborn, and child survival: the 2008 report on tracking coverage of interventions. Lancet 2008; 371: 1247–58.
8 Countdown Working Group on Health Policy and Health Systems. Assessment of the health system and policy environment as a critical complement to tracking intervention coverage for maternal, newborn, and child health. Lancet 2008; 371: 1284–93.
Report´s name: Maternal and hild health in the Occupied territory.
By: Hanan F Abdul Rahim, Laura Wick, Samia Halileh, Sahar Hassan-Bitar, Hafedh Chekir, Graham Watt, Marwan Khawaja
Year: 2009
Source:
http://www.thelancet.com
By Annie Robbins
It appears Israel’s ongoing incitement of Palestinian children has taken a particularly macabre turn.
Skunk spraying, apparently on West Bank
These videos have surfaced of Jerusalem police driving calmly through quiet empty East Jerusalem neighborhoods drenching elementary schools and residences with a putrid liquid with the stench of feces and rotting animal carcass, commonly referenced as “skunk spray”. 972+ has the story. “The skunk water targeted the A-Tur [Mount of Olives neighborhood] elementary school for boys, the elementary and high school for girls, a high school for boys and the ‘Basma’ elementary school for disabled children. All four schools are located on the neighborhood’s main street.”
As a result 4,500 children stayed home from school the following day: In the A-Tur neighborhood, the police shot skunk water at four large schools, forcing the parents of 4,500 students to leave their children at home due to the unbearable smell. “It was this past Friday, at around 5:30 p.m.,” says Khader Abu Sabitan, a member of the parents’ committee in the neighborhood. “I was on the road and saw them pass with their machine, and saw how they began shooting water at the school. I’m telling you – there was nothing there. It is Friday at 5:30 in the evening, and there was no one in the school or on the streets. Nothing. Everyone was home. They went to all four schools in the neighborhood, shot the water, and left.”
This form of collective punishment seems sadistic. I’m at a loss for a better term. Haggi Mater reports that “words cannot express” the stench, that “gagging is almost inevitable” and that it’s almost impossible to get rid of the smell.
The videos were given to 972+ to support resident claims that Jerusalem police had been using the spray routinely and arbitrarily. Evidently the practice of spraying the East Jerusalem neighborhoods has been going on for awhile and a complaint was filed with the police last August by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) . Palestinian residents have been meeting with human rights organizations but many are afraid to come forward and give testimony for fear of retribution. Because the practice is being used routinely, regardless of circumstance, the residence are at a loss as to how to respond.
The police claim that spraying the schools and homes is used according to regulations. Inquiries have been made seeking an explanation what those regulations are but the police have refused to tell them. Mater reports “ACRI has attempted to force the police to publish the regulations vis-a-vis the skunk” and that 972+ has also made inquires with the police and plan on publishing their response.
Read 972+’s full report here.
We’ve reported on the Israeli military’s practice of spraying villages in Occupied Palestine, but this is the first we’ve heard of police routinely spraying quiet Jerusalem neighborhoods.
Posted: 08/23/2013
By Ali Abunimah
Palestinian children are systematically subjected to torture and violence, including threats of rape, by Israeli interrogators, in order to force them to confess to stone-throwing.
Palestinian children are systematically subjected to torture and violence, including threats of rape |
The brutality, at the Etzion police station, in an illegal Israeli colony near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, is documented in a new report by the Israeli group B’Tselem:
In November 2009, B’Tselem began receiving reports of violence against Palestinian minors during interrogation at the Etzion police station. Until July 2013, B’Tselem field researchers collected 64 testimonies from residents of eight communities in the southern West Bank who reported such incidents. Fifty-six of them were minors at the time of their interrogation. The testimonies described severe physical violence during the interrogation or preliminary questioning, which, in some cases, amounted to torture. The violence included slaps, punches and kicks to all parts of the body, and blows with objects, such as a gun or a stick. Some of the former interrogatees also reported threats: in twelve cases, they claimed that the interrogator had threatened them or female relatives with sexual assault, such as rape and genital injury. In six cases, the interrogatees claimed that the interrogators had threatened to execute them; in eight cases, the interrogators allegedly threatened to harm family members; and in five other cases, they allegedly threatened to electrocute the interrogatees, including in a way that would damage their fertility.
I’ll murder you if you don’t confess”
B’Tselem included the testimony of M.A., a 15-year-old boy, from Husan village near Bethlehem:
The interrogator “Daud” took me outside with a soldier. They blindfolded me. The plastic cable ties were still on my hands. They put me in a car and started driving. I don’t know where they took me. We reached some place outside Etzion and they forced me out of the car. My hands really hurt because of the cable ties. They took off my blindfold. I didn’t know where I was. They tied me to a tree, and then they raised my cuffed hands and tied them to the tree, too. It hurt a lot. “Daud” started punching me. After a few minutes, he took out a gun and said: “I’ll murder you if you don’t confess! Out here, no one will find you. We’ll kill you and leave you here.
Video
<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2f5tPd3NtF0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
While the revelations from B’Tselem are shocking, they are, sadly, hardly new. The accounts of the Palestinian children are consistent with those collected in dozens of cases in 2012 alone by Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI).
These cases include routine use of solitary confinement with no access to family or lawyers, as well as physical violence, to force children to confess.
Last year, DCI released the brief video above, Alone, highlighting the experience and testimonies of Palestinian children abused and tortured by the occupation forces.
The film makes the point that Palestinian children subjected to military occupation have no one to protect them from such abuses by Israeli forces.
As of June this year, there are 193 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons of whom 41 were between the ages of 12 and 15.
Some 7,500 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli occupation forces since the year 2000, according to DCI.
Systematic violence and near total impunity
B´Tselem reports that its efforts to obtain accountability for Palestinian victims in dozens of cases have been met with stone-walling.
The group said its appeals to the occupation to deal “systemically” with the phenomenon of torture and violence at Etzion have gone nowhere:
Although B´Tselem contacted the Israel Police on this matter repeatedly, no official answer was given to the question whether any steps had been taken to address the phenomenon and, if so, what they were. All our communications with the police on the matter were met with denial.
B´Tselem said that the high number of consistent reports of torture suggest a systematic process:
The high number of reports B´Tselem has received regarding violent interrogations at the Etzion station, and the fact that they span several years, gives rise to heavy suspicion that this is not a case of a single interrogator who chose to use illegal interrogation methods, but rather an entire apparatus that backs him up and allows such conduct to take place.
B´Tselem itself issued a report about the torture of children at Etzion police station as far back as 2001.
Again, B´Tselem’s experience matches that of other Israeli groups, such as Yesh Din, that have found that efforts to obstain justice for Palestinians from their oppressors result in almost total and systematic impunity for the abusers.
Source:
http://electronicintifada.net
Posted: 17 June 2009
By Jonathan Cook
The rights of Palestinian children are routinely violated by Israel’s security forces
The rights of Palestinian children are routinely violated by Israel’s security forces, according to a new report that says beatings and torture are common. In addition, hundreds of Palestinian minors are prosecuted by Israel each year without a proper trial and are denied family visits. The findings by Defence for Children International (DCI) come in the wake of revelations from Israeli soldiers and senior commanders that it is “normal procedure” in the West Bank to terrorise Palestinian civilians, including children.Col Itai Virob, commander of the Kfir Brigade, disclosed last month that to accomplish a mission, “aggressiveness towards every one of the residents in the village is common”. Questioning included slaps, beatings and kickings, he said. As a result, Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the armed services, was forced to appear before the Israeli parliament to disavow the behaviour of his soldiers. Beatings were “absolutely prohibited”, he told legislators.
Col Virob made his remarks during court testimony in defence of two soldiers, including his deputy commander, who are accused of beating Palestinians in the village of Qaddum, close to Nablus. One told the court that “soldiers are educated towards aggression in the IDF [army]”. Col Virob appeared to confirm his observation, saying it was policy to “disturb the balance” of village life during missions and that the vast majority of assaults were “against uninvolved people”.Last week, further disclosures of ill-treatment of Palestinians, some as young as 14, were aired on Israeli TV, using material collected by dissident soldiers as part of the Breaking the Silence project, which highlights army brutality.Two soldiers serving in the Harub battalion said they had witnessed beatings at a school in the West Bank village of Hares, south-west of Nablus, in an operation in March to stop stone-throwing. Many of those held were not involved, the soldiers said.During a 12-hour operation that began at 3am, 150 detainees were blindfolded and handcuffed from behind, with the nylon restraints so tight their hands turned blue. The worst beatings, the soldiers said, occurred in the school toilets.
According to one soldier’s testimony, a boy of about 15 was given “a slap that brought him to the ground”. He added that many of his comrades “just knee [Palestinians] because it’s boring, because you stand there 10 hours, you’re not doing anything, so they beat people up”.The picture from serving soldiers confirms the findings of DCI, which noted that many children were picked up in general sweeps after disturbances or during late-night raids of their homes.Its report includes a selection of testimonies from children it represented in 2008 in which they describe Israeli soldiers beating them or being tortured by interrogators. One 10-year-old boy, identified as Ezzat H, described an army search of his family home for a gun. He said a soldier slapped and punched him repeatedly during two hours of questioning, before another soldier pointed a rifle at him: “The rifle barrel was a few centimetres away from my face. I was so terrified that I started to shiver. He made fun of me. ”Another boy, Shadi H, aged 15, said he and his friend were forced to undress by soldiers in an orange grove near Tulkarm while the soldiers threw stones at them. They were then beaten with rifle butts. Jameel K, aged 14, described being taken to a military camp where he was assaulted and then had a rope tightened around his neck in a mock execution.
Yehuda Shaul, of Breaking the Silence, said soldiers treated any Palestinian older than 12 or 13 as an adult.“For the first time a high-ranking soldier [Col Virob] has joined us in raising the issue – even if not intentionally – that the use of physical violence against Palestinians is not exceptional but policy. A few years ago no senior officer would have had the guts to say this,” he said.The DCI report also highlights the systematic use of torture by interrogators from the army and the secret police, the Shin Bet, in an attempt to extract confessions from children, often in cases involving stone-throwing. Islam M, aged 12, said he was threatened with having boiling water poured on his face if he did not admit throwing stones and was then pushed into a thorn bush. Another boy, Abed S, aged 16, said his hands and feet were tied to the wall of an interrogation room in the shape of a cross for a day and then put in solitary confinement for 15 days. Last month, the United Nations Committee Against Torture, a panel of independent experts, expressed “deep concern” at Israel’s treatment of Palestinian minors. According to the DCI report, some 700 children are convicted in Israel’s military courts each year, with children older than 12 denied access to lawyers in interrogation.
It adds that interrogators routinely blindfold and handcuff child detainees during questioning and use techniques including slaps and kicks, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, threats to the child and his family, and tying the child up for long periods. Such practices were banned by Israel’s Supreme Court in 1999 but are still widely documented by Israeli human rights groups. In 95 per cent of cases, children are convicted on the basis of signed confessions written in Hebrew, a language few of them understand. Once sentenced, the children are held in violation of international law in prisons in Israel where most are denied visits from family and receive little or no education. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, reported in November that soldiers rarely faced disciplinary action over illegal behaviour. Army data from2000 to the end of 2007 revealed that the military police had indicted soldiers in only 78 of 1,268 investigations. Most soldiers received minor sentences.
Source:
http://www.jonathan-cook.net
Posted on: 7 Apr 2008
On World Health Day, DCI/PS is publishing a report on the impact of the Israeli imposed blockade on Gaza on children suffering from cancer and blood diseases in the Strip.
Impact of the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza on the provision of health services in the Gaza Strip.
This report highlights the impact of the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza on the provision of health services in the Gaza Strip. In particular, it focuses on children suffering from cancer and blood diseases, and their inability to access life saving medicines and treatment inside or outside Gaza. Children have the right to enjoy “the highest attainable standard of health”, as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which Israel, as the occupying power, has a duty to facilitate. However, the closing of almost all of Gaza‟s border crossings constitutes a threat to the right of Palestinian children to receive appropriate medical treatment, and a direct threat to their right to life.
A. Introduction: The Gaza blockade
The Gaza Strip has 1.48 million inhabitants and one of the highest population densities in the world. Since the election of the Hamas government in January 2006, drastic restrictions have been imposed on the movement of people and goods in and out of the Strip. The restrictions were significantly tightened when an Israeli soldier was captured by three Palestinian factions in June 2006, and again in June 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza strip. Further sanctions were imposed following Israel‟s decision to declare Gaza a “hostile entity” in September 2007, and reductions in fuel and electricity supplies were implemented in September 2007 and January 2008.
Read the full report click here
By: Defence for Children International /Palestine.
Year: 2008
Link: http://www.dci-palestine.org/sites/default/files/gaza_child_cancer_report_2008.PDF
The recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is prohibited under international law.
DCI-Palestine has released the report:Recruitment and Use of Palestinian Children in Armed Conflict. The recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is prohibited under international law, and can take many forms, ranging from direct involvement in fighting, to subsidiary roles, such as acting as informants. The prohibition also includes using children as human shields. The report finds that in the context of the military occupation of the Palestinian Territory, both Israel and Palestinian armed groups have violated the prohibition.
The report covers an eight year period between 2004 and 2011 (the reporting period), and identifies three circumstances where children are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by both parties to the conflict:
- The use of children as human shields by the Israeli army;
- The recruitment of children as informants by Israeli interrogators; and
- The use of children in hostilities by Palestinian armed groups.
The key findings of the report include:
1. In 16 out of the 17 cases documented involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields, the event occurred after a ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice declared the practice illegal. This suggests that the Israeli army is either ignoring the court’s judgment, or not properly ensuring compliance with its ruling. It is also significant to note that in only one case, was anybody held accountable for using a child as a human shield.
2. The report identifies 16 cases in which attempts were made by Israeli interrogators to recruit children as informants. Most attempts at recruitment occur during interrogation following arrest and the report identifies a number of methods, including the offer of money and early release. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the reluctance to talk, it is difficult to ascertain the scale of the problem, although there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the practice is widespread.
3. Finally, the report identifies 26 cases involving the recruitment and use of children by Palestinian armed groups during the reporting period. It is significant to note that in 23 out of 26 cases (88 percent), the children were from the Gaza Strip. It is also significant that in all 26 cases (100 percent) the evidence indicates that the children were not forcefully conscripted, but volunteered to join a group or to participate in hostilities. When asked why they volunteered, the children gave reasons ranging from patriotism to the “oppression” of the occupation and the killing and imprisonment of family members. The report finds that the recruitment and use of children by Palestinian armed groups increases during large scale incursions by the Israeli army, but such involvement does not appear to be either widespread or systematic.
Read the full report here
Report´s name: Recruitment and use of Palestinian children in armed conflicto
By: Defence for Children International /Palestine
Year: 2012
Link: http://www.dci-palestine.org/sites/default/files/recruitment_report_-_final.pdf
It was just another day for the Israeli army on the West Bank. 
Having parked its jeeps in the hills south of Hebron, a unit of soldiers checked the papers of the Palestinians who lived there, confiscated one or two, and then herded the people and their flocks off a hilltop which a nearby Jewish settlement, called Susiya, has been eyeing with a view to taking it over. “Military zone,” tersely explained an Israeli officer, who had just received a warrant declaring it such. “Off you go.”
Taking time out from their Saturday morning prayers, a few settlers looked on approvingly. “Don’t argue,” replied the officer, when a Palestinian shepherd asked why the soldiers were moving Arabs out of the newly acquired military zone but not Jews. “You have a minute to move or I’ll arrest you,” said the officer.
“Settlers are just off-duty soldiers,” mumbled the shepherd to his sons as they stubbornly continued to tend their sheep. A Palestinian mother picnicking with her two toddlers is hauled away by Israeli soldiers, while villagers plead for her release.
The signs of previous bouts of displacement ring the adjacent hills. Mobile homes for young Jewish settlers sprout on the hilltops. Armed with a list of military orders, Israeli soldiers are herding the West Bank’s Palestinians out of the rural 60% of the territory, officially known as Area C, where Israel has full military and civilian control, and into cities. On some days the Israeli army declares a patch of land to be a live-fire military zone. On other days they say the Palestinians must move because of an impending archaeological dig. The erection of hilltop stations to provide antennae for Israeli mobile phones (but not for Palestinian ones) is another oft-cited reason for pushing Palestinians out. Eight Palestinian hamlets around Susiya face demolition.
Armed Jewish settlers assist the clearance. Soon after the army did its job, a Jewish shepherdess from Susiya brought her flock onto a Palestinian field of wheat to let it graze. Someone had scratched out all the Arabic road signs. “The only weapons we have are our cameras,” says Alia Nawaja, a mother of seven turned amateur camerawoman, who lives in a nearby hamlet. Palestinian violence, however, still occasionally erupts. On April 30th a Jewish settler was killed by a Palestinian for the first time since September 2011, at the other end of the West Bank.
A barrage of reports by the UN, the European Union and assorted charities has repeatedly warned that the Palestinians in Area C are under threat. Some 350,000 Jewish settlers now inhabit over 200 settlements and outposts in the same area, usually on the high ground, twice as many people as the Palestinians in the land below. Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s new defence minister, the ultimate authority in the West Bank, backs a report commissioned last year by the Israeli government, endorsing all such Jewish settlements. Naftali Bennett, another powerful minister in the new coalition of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, wants all of Area C to be annexed outright to Israel.
In many respects this has already largely taken place. A senior Israeli officer recently testified in court that in the past 45 years of Israeli occupation the army has redistributed around 70% of the West Bank land designated as state-owned either to Jewish settlers or to the World Zionist Organisation, whereas less than 1% of supposedly state-owned land was granted to Palestinians. While Israel’s government expands Jewish settlements and ties them to Israel proper with a network of roads, it bars and sometimes reverses Palestinian development. It habitually denies housing permits to Palestinians, thus stunting the community’s natural growth, yet provides uninterrupted water to Jewish settlements. Water for the Palestinians generally comes once a week, by lorry. Israeli soldiers have destroyed scores of small EU-funded projects, ranging from wells to solar panelling, and threatened to demolish scores more.
So far this year Israel’s army has evicted almost 400 Palestinian West Bankers from their homes in Area C, the fastest rate for two years, says the UN, and has dismantled over 200 residential and work-related structures. The number of such incidents has risen sharply since a new Israeli government, with even stronger settler influence within it, took office in March. As a result, the European Union called on April 26th for an end to what it calls “the forced transfer” of Palestinians out of Area C. The Israeli army has also again demolished a restaurant, al-Maghrour, in a rural spot that was popular with Palestinians from nearby Bethlehem, which is increasingly hemmed in by settlements. In addition, some 2,300 Bedouin have recently been earmarked for removal from the strategic west-east corridor known as E1, which links Jerusalem to a big Jewish settlement, Maale Adumim, and to its smaller satellite community, Kfar Adumim, where Israel’s new housing minister, Uri Ariel, happens to reside.
Source:
http://www.economist.com
Posted on: Feb. 12, 2015
Israel has earmarked around 2,000 dunams (500 acres) of private Palestinian land for annexation in the Hebron district, local activists say.
Muhammad al-Halayqa, an activist in the village of al-Shuyukh northeast of Hebron, told Ma’an that Israel’s Civil Administration has posted warning notices on the land slated for confiscation.
The land belongs to the al-Halayqa, Rasna, and al-Hasasna families.
The Mayor of al-Shuyukh, Sharif al-Halayqa, says Israeli forces have prevented locals from accessing their land, adding that the areas slated for confiscation are likely going to be used for settlement building.
The village council will liaise with Palestinian officials and legal groups to try to prevent the annexation.
A spokesperson from the Israeli Civil Administration told Ma’an that the land in question was designated as “state land.”
On Jan. 27, an Israeli court issued an order to confiscate hundreds of dunams of land northwest of Hebron in the village of Beit Ula. The land is located in Area C, under full Israeli security and administrative control.
Last December, Israeli authorities declared a vast area of private Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley a closed military zone in preparation to confiscate the land, an official said.
Ribhi al-Khandaqji, the governor of the Tubas district, said in a statement that the land was located in the Ein al-Sakut area and measured about 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres).
Source:
http://www.juancole.com
Since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, Israel has implemented a range of different methods to restrict Palestinian access to land and other resources in the occupied territories.[1]
With the Oslo Accords – an interim agreement between Israel and the PLO intended to lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict – the West Bank was divided into three areas under different jurisdictions. Since then the West Bank has been divided into what are called Areas A, B, and C. Within these areas the Palestinian and Israeli authorities have different levels of control. The idea was that over time more and more of the responsibilities and powers would be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.[2]
This has not happened and because no permanent resolution to the conflict has been reached, the interim situation is still in effect.[3]
Area A is under full control of the Palestinian Authority and consists primarily of urban Palestinian areas. Area B is under Palestinian civil control and shared Palestinian and Israeli security control and includes the vast majority of the Palestinian rural areas. Area C is under full Israeli control. Palestinian agencies are responsible for education and healthcare.[4]
Different practices for Palestinian communities and Israeli settlements The Israeli controlled Area C constitutes about 60% of the West Bank.[5]
All construction within Area C requires approval from the Israeli Civil Administration, which is an authority under the Israeli Ministry of Defence. In practice, the Israeli authorities only allow Palestinian construction within the boundaries of a specific area that has a detailed scheme from the Israeli Civil Administration. These plans cover less than 1% of Area C and a large portion of this land is already built-up.[6]
Under the current system the Palestinians are given no influence over the division of the land within Area C. Nor can they affect the zoning of their communities or the granting of permits for construction work.[7]
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that Israel – at the same time as the country has greatly limited Palestinian construction – has established parallel practices for the settlements. The Israeli authorities have approved detailed plans for almost all Israeli settlements on the West Bank, where today over 300,000 settlers are living.[8] While Palestinians are excluded from the planning process, settlers fully participate and are generally responsible for planning and zoning activities within the settlements.[9]
This process has contributed towards the expansion of the settlements in violation of international law.[10]
Difficult for Palestinians to obtain planning permission – not for settlers
The Israeli NGO Peace Now has identified the building and demolition decisions in Area C. Between 2000 and 2007 the Israeli Civil Administration approved only 91 of 1,624 Palestinian applications.[11]
That means that over 94% were rejected. During the same period Israeli settlers built over 18,000 homes in the same area. Palestinians are denied building permits for even the most basic purposes such as building a house on their own private land.[12]
The Israeli policy does not only affect individuals. Many Palestinian villages and communities are constrained by not getting permission to carry out investments in infrastructure, like repairing roads and the electrical grid or laying pipes to connect to water supplies.[13]
Peace Now says that Palestinians living in Area C in principal face two choices: to build illegally and risk demolition or leave their homes to move to Area A or B, where Palestinian agencies administer building permits.[14]
The high proportion of refusals of applications from Palestinians indicates, according to Peace Now, that there is a policy among the Israeli authorities of implementing a “silent transfer” of Palestinians from Area C.[15]
Palestinians forced to build illegally – many buildings demolished
The Israeli authorities restrictions have resulted in that tens of thousands of Palestinians who want to build in Area C have no choice but to build illegally on their land to meet their needs.[16]
Illegal construction is threatened with demolition and people that live in these homes risk homelessness. Between 2000 and 2007, the Civil Administration issued almost 5,000 demolition orders against illegal Palestinian constructions. A third of these, over 1,600, had been executed when the study ended.[17]
The numbers demonstrate that for every building permit issued to Palestinians in Area C, 18 other Palestinian buildings are demolished and a further 37 demolition orders against Palestinian buildings are issued.[18]
The situation is different in the settlements. Only 7% of the 2,900 demolition orders that were issued against illegal constructions in the Israeli settlements between 2000 and 2007were carried out. [19]
During 2009 the Israeli authorities tore down 180 Palestinian-owned buildings in Area C, resulting in over 300 Palestinians, including 167 children, becoming homeless. Many of the demolished buildings were, according to OCHA, in some of the West Bank’s most vulnerable communities.[20]
Thousands of buildings in the West Bank risk being demolished. According to information from the Israeli state, 2,450 Palestinian buildings have been demolished over the past twelve years.[21]
Demolition orders and demolitions between 2000-2007[22]
Number of demolition orders issued for Palestinian buildings: 4,993 Percentage of demolitions carried out: 33% (1,663) Number of demolition orders issued against buildings in the settlements: 2,900 Percentage of demolitions carried out: 7% (199) The entire West Bank is influenced The Israeli control of Area C does not only influence the Palestinians who live there.
Because of the fact that Area C is the only contiguous territory in the West Bank, it is of vital importance to the entire Palestinian population.[23]
It contains valuable water sources, land for grazing and agriculture, and it contains land that is necessary for the development of infrastructure and for the expansion of the Palestinian communities that are in Area A and B. The problem becomes more serious as the Palestinian population grows and today there is a great need for more land.[24]
The World Bank claims that Israel’s continued control of planning and zoning within Area C constitutes a serious constraint on the Palestinian economy.[25]
Israel’s building policy in Area C has directly contributed to the poor living conditions for many Palestinians in the West Bank. In addition to those made homeless as a result of housing demolitions, difficulties in obtaining building permission leads to economic problems and it limits access to healthcare and education, among other things.
For example, it is hard for the Palestinian authorities to provide schooling and healthcare when it is so difficult to obtain permission to construct buildings for these purposes.[26]
Herders and farmers have only limited access to grazing land and can rarely erect buildings for their animals. OCHA claims that even the international community has trouble obtaining building permits for infrastructure projects that in various ways are intended to provide humanitarian aid to some of the West Bank’s most vulnerable areas.[27]
****************************
[1] United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[2] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[3] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlments and Other Infrastructure in The West Bank, 2007 p. 122
[4] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[5] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[6] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[7] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[8] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[9] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[10] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[11] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[12] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[13] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[14] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[15] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[16] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[17] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[18] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[19] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Construction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[20] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 2
[21] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[22] Peace Now, 2008, Area C: Palestinian Contruction and Demolition Stats, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=495&docid=3159
[23] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[24] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[25] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[26] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
[27] UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, 2009, Restricting Space: The Planning Regime Applied by Israel in Area C of the West Bank, p. 3
Source:
http://www.settlerwatch.com
risus enim amet nibh faucibus ante purus mollis quam, lobortis tempus donec urna ornare duis nisi curae ante sit vitae, nisl vivamus cubilia fringilla ligula faucibus nam vestibulum diam. mattis sollicitudin nam phasellus in magna metus, mollis est porta venenatis phasellus curabitur gravida, curae non congue in nisi.
Suscipit sapien vivamus eu neque egestas nulla aliquam risus ad mattis elementum, tincidunt sociosqu nunc nisi dictumst volutpat feugiat euismod lobortis curabitur. consectetur aenean lacinia auctor habitant enim sem ligula lacinia himenaeos, velit ullamcorper suspendisse ante leo magna ad conubia egestas donec, facilisis taciti placerat inceptos arcu id imperdiet curabitur.
Cursus lacinia fusce ut mi pretium convallis nulla turpis, taciti facilisis conubia consequat est aliquam eu fermentum convallis, at fermentum at tortor integer nisl vestibulum. ante aenean scelerisque tellus faucibus facilisis sagittis augue donec, sapien morbi quis cursus dui platea etiam enim nisl, curae elementum posuere eget habitasse lobortis nostra.