On Thursday, Israeli soldiers demolished a Palestinian restaurant in the Al-Walaja village northwest of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
Khader Al-A’raj, the head of Al-Walaja Village Council, said the soldiers invaded the Ein Jweiza area in the village and demolished a restaurant owned by Rashid Barghouth.
Al-A’raj added that the military claimed the restaurant was built without a permit from the “Civil Administration Office,” the administrative branch of the illegal Israeli occupation.
On February 1, the soldiers demolished two Palestinian homes in Beit Jala city and the Al-Walaja village.
Ein Jweiza has been subject to frequent and escalating Israeli violations for several years, including demolishing many homes and buildings and bulldozing and confiscating lands for Israel’s illegal colonialist activities.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a signatory and a constant violator with impunity, states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
