Israel steps up pace of Bedouin home demolitions
The targeted area, east of Jerusalem, is slated for an expansion of the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
By Amira Hass | Sep. 24, 2014 | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.617537
The Civil Administration in the West Bank has stepped up demolitions of Bedouin buildings in the E-1 area east of Jerusalem since April. The area is slated for an expansion of the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.
The number of such demolitions in the first eight months of 2014 was higher than in any comparable period in the last five years, as was the number of people who lost their homes as a result, according to an analysis by the Association of International Development Agencies of data compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Although demolitions were carried out in only four of these eight months (March, April, May and August), more buildings were razed in the E-1 area in those months (35) than in all of 2013 (21). The number of people who lost their homes as a result rose to 156, from 57.
The disproportionate increase in the number of people who were made homeless as a result of the demolitions in the first eight months of 2014 relative to the number of buildings that were razed indicates that a larger proportion of the structures that were destroyed this year were residential. That, as opposed to being used for livestock or other purposes.
In Area C as a whole — portions of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control, according to the Oslo Accords – the Civil Administration razed 346 buildings in the eight-month period, leaving 668 Palestinians homeless. In 2013 as a whole, 565 demolitions left 805 Palestinians homeless.
The only demolitions so far this month occurred on September 8, when the Civil Administration razed three homes and a sheep pen in Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin encampment near Ma’aleh Adumim. A family of 14, including eight children, lived in the three homes.
It was the fourth time in three years that the family’s homes were destroyed, on the grounds that they were within an Israel Defense Forces firing zone. The family, like most Bedouin in the same situation, would rather risk repeated demolitions than leave the area where they live, supporting themselves by raising sheep and goats and doing odd jobs in nearby communities.
