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<h1 class="title">Israeli forces demolish EU-funded homes in
southern West Bank Bedouin village</h1>
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<div class="stamp">Aug. 14, 2017 - <font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778684">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778684</a></font><br>
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<div class="BodyDiv"> HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces demolished
housing donated by the European Union (EU) in a Bedouin village
in the southern occupied West Bank on Monday morning, locals
told Ma’an.
<div style="font-style: normal;">Muhammad Shanan, a resident of
Khashem al-Daraj, told Ma’an that Israeli bulldozers under
heavy military protection demolished two houses in the village
belonging to Mustafa Salim Awwad and Moussa Ahmad Awwad.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">Meanwhile, Ratib al-Jabour, a
coordinator of the National and Popular Committees in the
southern West Bank, told Ma’an that Israeli troops had also
escorted bulldozers in the nearby Bedouin village of Umm
al-Kheir, where residents feared their homes would also be
demolished.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">A spokesperson for the
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
(COGAT), the Israeli agency responsible for implementing
Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, said
they were looking into the reports. </div>
<div style=""><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div>
<div style=""><span style="font-style: italic;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">Khashem al-Daraj and Umm
al-Kheir are among dozens of small communities located in the
Masafer Yatta area -- also known as the South Hebron Hills --
which falls within Israel's "Firing Zone 918," and inside the
occupied West Bank's Area C, the 62 percent of the West Bank
under full Israeli civil and security control.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">Palestinians are prohibited
from entering firing zones without rarely granted permission
from Israeli authorities, which has had “a serious
humanitarian impact on Palestinian civilians and dramatically
reduced the land available to them for residential and
livelihood uses," according to the <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_firing_zone_factsheet_august_2012_english.pdf"
style="text-decoration-line: none;">United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs</a> (OCHA).<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">Masafer Yatta residents were
expelled at the time of the establishment of the firing zone
in the 1970s and were eventually allowed back following a long
court battle, but are under the constant threat of being
expelled or seeing their homes demolished.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">In 2016, the UN’s humanitarian
coordinator in Palestine <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772814"
style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">warned
of a heightened risk of the forcible transfer of Bedouins</a>
in the occupied West Bank, including the community of Umm
al-Kheir, amid an unprecedented surge in demolitions and land
confiscations across the occupied territory this year.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">Meanwhile, the presence of
around 3,000 Israeli settlers illegally living in the area has
restricted Palestinian growth over the past decade while
Israeli authorities reallocate local resources for settlement
expansion.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;"><a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778503"
style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Earlier
this month</a>, Israeli authorities reportedly completed the
construction of a 41.8-kilometer section of Israel’s illegal
separation wall in the South Hebron Hills.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">The separation wall, expected
to reach 708 kilometers upon its completion -- 88 percent of
which is planned inside occupied Palestinian territory -- is a
common sight in the occupied West Bank, where
Israeli-installed cement walls and barrier fences zig zag
throughout the landscape.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">Israeli leaders often claim
that the wall serves a security purpose to deter potential
Palestinian attacks on Israelis. However, many activists,
academics, and analysts have said that the wall is instead a
massive “land grab” of large tracts of the Palestinian
territory, and a strategy to consolidate Israel’s sovereignty
over Area C where illegal Israeli settlements are built or in
the process of being built.<br>
<br>
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<div style="font-style: normal;">The wall’s construction has
continued unabated despite being the International Court of
Justice ruling that it breached international law. Encroaching
deep into the Palestinian territory, the separation wall has
left Palestinian neighborhoods stranded on both sides of the
barrier, and isolating communities from their agricultural
lands.</div>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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