Demolishing Palestinian structures is the norm — not the exception
http://972mag.com/demolishing-palestinian-structures-is-the-norm-not-the-exception/110664/
Over August 17-18 Israeli authorities demolished around 40 Palestinian structures in the West Bank, displacing over 120 Palestinians. The demolitions were carried out during a record-breaking heat wave that has hit Israel-Palestine over the past week.
Monday’s total of 22 demolitions — in the Ma’ale Adumim area of the West Bank — displaced 78 Palestinians (including 49 children), the highest such number in one day since October 2012. Tuesday saw 17 structures demolished in the village of Fasayil in the Jordan Valley, leaving 48 homeless, including 31 children. All the affected families belong to Bedouin communities found throughout the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley.
The majority of the demolished structures are located within Area C of the West Bank, defined as being under full Israeli security and administrative control. However, the village of Fasayil is partly located within Area B, which is under Palestinian administrative control and Israeli military control.
The high number of demolitions provoked a strongly-worded press release from the United Nations, calling for “an immediate freeze on demolitions in the West Bank.” The statement notes that the majority of those that Israel has rendered homeless are already refugees. The Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank, Felipe Sanchez, is quoted in the statement as saying that “[m]any of these refugee families have now been displaced four times in the last four years.”
This is ethnic cleansing. This is apartheid Israel.
