Two Palestinian villages in the West Bank received demolition orders Sunday from Israeli authorities, one in Hebron district, and the other in Bethlehem district, according to Wafa News Agency.
9 residential structures, in addition to caravans and animal barns, have been ordered to be destroyed in the village of Tuwanah, in the southern occupied West Bank region of Masser Yatta.
The landowners Ra’ed, Morad, Amer, Mahmoud and Mohammad Hamamdeh, supposedly lack the necessary Israeli permit for the structures. The occupation authorities ostensibly have the right to destroy their property.
Local rights activist Rateb Jabour told Wafa that officials from the Israeli ‘Planning and Construction Committee’ entered Tuwanah village alongside the Israeli military, to deliver the notices.
Locals of Beit Jala town, northwest of Bethlehem also reported similar notices from Israeli forces for the demolition of animal barns, citing again the lack of permits.
The Israeli authorities have long made it difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank to obtain a ‘permit’ to build, forcing many to build without. The Israeli regime intends to displace the indigenous Palestinian people to replace them with illegal colonists.
Israel provides roughly 550,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank with housing, roads, electricity, water, and sewage systems, in contrast to denying Palestinians the same, in a racially discriminatory manner. This double standard is especially pronounced due to the fact that the Israeli colonial settlers are living on land that was illegally seized from its Palestinian owners.
Under the Oslo Accords of 1993 & 1995, 60% of the area of the West Bank came under absolute Israeli military control, both Tuwanah and Beit Jala villages are both in area C.
‘Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and construction. The transfer of control to the PA has never happened.’ – Al Jazeera : Oslo Accords : The Price of Oslo
“Oslo was the greatest idea Israel ever had. It let them continue the occupation without paying any of the costs.” – Mustafa Barghouti : Palestinian National Initiative
