- LONDON, England -- More than
3,000 homes, vast areas of agricultural land and hundreds of other properties
have been destroyed by the Israeli army and security forces in Israel and
the Occupied Territories in the past three and a half years. Tens of thousands
of men, women and children have been made homeless or have lost their livelihood.
Thousands of other houses have been damaged, and tens of thousands of others
are under threat of demolition, their occupants living in fear of homelessness.
House demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night,
and the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings.
Often the only warning is the rumbling of the Israeli army's US-made Caterpillar
bulldozers beginning to tear down the walls of their homes.
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- The victims are often amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged.
In most cases the justification given by the Israeli authorities for the
destruction is "military/security needs", while in other cases
it is the lack of building permits. The result is the same: families are
left homeless and destitute, forced to rely on relatives, friends and humanitarian
organizations for shelter and subsistence.
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- House demolition has been a long-standing policy in the
Occupied Territories and in the Arab sector in Israel. However, in the
past three and a half years the scale of the destruction has reached an
unprecedented level. The destruction of Palestinian homes, agricultural
land and other property in the Occupied Territories, is inextricably linked
to Israel's long-standing policy of appropriating as much as possible of
the land it occupies, notably by establishing Israeli settlements in violation
of international law. In Israel it is essentially the homes of Palestinian
citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs) which are targeted for demolition. The
phenomenon is linked to the state's policy of large-scale confiscation
of land, restrictive planning regulations and discriminatory policies in
the allocation of state land which makes it difficult or impossible for
Israeli Arabs to obtain building permits.
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- This document summarizes a 65-page report: Israel and
the Occupied Territories: Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction
of land and property (May 2004), which analyses the main patterns and trends
of forced eviction, house demolition and destruction of property by the
Israeli army and security forces in Israel and the Occupied Territories
in the light of international human rights and humanitarian law.
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- The destruction of houses, land and other properties
falls into two categories: houses built without a permit and houses, land
and other properties which the Israeli authorities contend are destroyed
for "military/security needs."
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- APPLICABLE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STANDARDS
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- Both in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, Israel
is bound by international human rights law, including the international
human rights treaties to which Israel is a State Party, including the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). In the
Occupied Territories, in addition to international human rights law, Israel's
conduct as the occupying power must also comply with the provisions of
international humanitarian law applicable to belligerent occupation, including
the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War of 12 August 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention).
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- Israel has consistently denied its obligation to apply
the UN human rights treaties which it has ratified in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip and has consistently rejected the applicability of the Fourth
Geneva Convention. However, Israel stands alone in its contention. The
applicability of both the Fourth Geneva Convention and international human
rights treaties has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the relevant bodies and
by the international community.
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- BACKGROUND
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- The human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied
Territories has seriously deteriorated since October 2000. Since then violence
and human right abuses have reached unprecedented levels. More than 2,500
Palestinians, including some 450 children have been killed by the Israeli
army. More than 900 Israelis, most of them civilians, including some 100
children have been killed by Palestinian armed groups in suicide bombings
and other attacks. Tens of thousands of Palestinians and thousands of Israeli
civilians have been injured, many seriously.
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- In addition, the Israeli army has carried out large-scale
destruction of Palestinian houses, land and other properties and has imposed
increasingly stringent restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in
the Occupied Territories. As a result the Palestinian economy has virtually
collapsed, and unemployment and poverty have increased dramatically in
the West Bank and Gaza. Two thirds of the Palestinian population now live
below the poverty line and malnutrition and other medical conditions are
spreading.
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- These and other concerns about the human rights situation
in Israel and the Occupied Territories have been addressed by Amnesty International
in numerous reports and other material.
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- http://www.oasistv.com/news/5-20-04-story-4.asp
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