[News] Israel racing to destroy Palestinian property while Trump is in office
Anti-Imperialist News
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Tue Nov 10 13:02:44 EST 2020
https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2020/11/10/Israel-racing-to-destroy-Palestinian-property-while-Trump-is-in-office
<https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2020/11/10/Israel-racing-to-destroy-Palestinian-property-while-Trump-is-in-office>
Israel racing to destroy Palestinian property while Trump is in office
By Yousef Alhelou - November 10, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last week, Israeli occupation forces carried out the largest demolition
in years in the occupied West Bank. Some 76 Palestinian-owned
properties, tents, sheds, structures and animal fodder were destroyed in
the occupied Jordan Valley village of Khirbet Humsa. Almost 80 people,
including 41 children, were displaced as winter approaches in the middle
of the Covid-19 pandemic.
What happened to this community is de facto annexation facilitated under
Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”. It is also a consequence of the
normalisation deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, which
have emboldened the occupation state.
The Bedouin and herding committees in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem
areas are the main target of such demolitions and subsequent expulsion
from their land. Since the beginning of this year, 689 structures,
properties and animal shelters have been bulldozed and destroyed by the
Israelis. This year has seen the most demolition of Palestinian-owned
property since 2016. It’s a cruel, racist and inhumane policy through
which Israel wants to drive Palestinians off their land. The Zionist
state is greedy for more land for illegal settlements and military
bases, and so the ethnic cleansing which began in earnest in 1948 to
force the indigenous population off the land continues unabated.
Condemnations of Israel’s actions, while appreciated, actually mean
little as far as the Palestinians are concerned. They know that they do
not deter the occupation state from doing what it wants in the absence
of any sense of accountability. It has ignored UN Resolutions for years,
so why should Israel’s impunity be threatened by a statement from the UN
Secretary General’s spokesman? Such is the level of the double standards
at play in the international community that Israel can, literally, get
away with murder.
According to the United Nations, Israel has demolished more than 55,000
Palestinian homes, dwellings and other structures since 1967. This
figure does not include the destruction caused by the Zionist state’s
military offensives against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Such
demolitions are, the UN points out, a “grave breach” of international law.
“I remind all parties that the extensive destruction of property and the
forcible transfer of protected people in an occupied territory are grave
breaches of the 4th Geneva Convention,” said Yvonne Helle, the
Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for the occupied territory at the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “The
humanitarian community stands ready to support all those who have been
displaced or otherwise affected.”
The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories, B’Tselem, tweeted that, “While you were eagerly following
the US elections, Israel has demolished an entire community’s
residential compound, leaving 74 people, 41 of them minors, homeless.”
This was echoed in a message from Palestinian Authority Prime Minister
Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s cosy words of congratulations for US
President-elect Joe Biden, “a great friend of Israel”, it is my belief
that the Israeli Prime Minister is racing to destroy as many Palestinian
properties as possible while the man responsible for “bringing the
American-Israeli alliance to unprecedented heights”, Donald Trump, is
still in office. Yet more despicable and illegal facts on the ground are
being established, just in case Biden decides to change US foreign
policy in the region. Coming so soon after the normalisation deals,
Netanyahu knows that the green light for more illegal activity may soon
change to amber, but probably not red.
As is often the case, Israel has ready-made justifications whenever it
displays its open contempt for international law. In the latest
demolition case, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs
in the West Bank claimed that the “enforcement activity” was carried out
against seven tents and eight pens that were “illegally constructed” in
a firing range. Do such dwellings and sheds pose a threat to Israel’s
security? And why was a firing range sited where indigenous people have
been living and grazing their animals for centuries? It’s yet another
excuse to drive the people off their land.
Joe Biden is apparently opposed to Israel’s planned annexation of large
swathes of the West Bank. It remains to be seen if he will defend
Palestinian rights when he enters the White House in January, and put an
end to Israel’s ability to act with impunity.
/- Yousef Alhelou is a Palestinian journalist based in London. His
article appeared in MEMO./
--
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