Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 7000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, leaving some 40,000 people homeless. Since October more than 500 homes have been destroyed by tank fire, missiles and army bulldozers. Last week alone, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished 28 houses on the West Bank This week it's East Jerusalem's turn: 19 houses belonging to Palestinians are slated for demolition.
To protest the resumption of politically motivated house demolitions by the Israeli government approximately one hundred Israelis and two hundred Palestinians held a peaceful rally this evening. The recent demolition orders have threatened the homes of several Palestinian families in the village of Um-Tuba, south of Jerusalem. The village overlooks the new Israeli settlement of Har Nof, which is being built in violation of the Oslo agreements and UN resolutions. Palestinian Minister Faisel Husseini and Jeff Halper, the Coordinator of the Israeli Coalition Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) addressed the rally. Both men spoke out against the continued illegal building of settlements for wealthy Jewish Israelis and the recent demolition of numerous Palestinian homes in the same areas. The houses threatened by demolition in Um-Tuba are inhabited by impoverished Palestinians whose only option was to build tiny single room homes for their families on land they own. The Israeli goverment has declared the land exclusively a ‘green area’ and therefor illegal to build on. The speakers pointed out that the tragedy unfolding at Um-Tuba/Har Nof is a microcosm of the greater tragedy of the Palestinian people who are living under continuing occupation while seeing their patrimony swallowed up by the subsidized luxury apartments and villas of the Israeli settlers.
In his remarks, Jeff Halper pointed out that house demolitions represent a cynical use of law and planning for purely political purposes. Immediately after the 1967 war a third of the land in East Jerusalem was expropriated for Jewish building. Of the rest, more than half was frozen as "green areas." Thus the 200,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are squeezed into small enclaves, unable to build modest houses on their own land, while the government builds tens of thousands of housing units for Jews only in the eastern part of the city. 80% of the building violations in Jerusalem occur in West Jerusalem; 80% of the demolitions happen in East Jerusalem. And while whole houses are demolished in the Arab sector, this never happens among the Jewish population.
At the conclusion of the rally several of the Jewish participants volunteered to sleep in the houses in order to be present to protest the arrival of bulldozers. The message was distributed later in the evening through an email network that more volunteers are needed to spend a night in the threatened homes. Hospitality has been offered by the villagers and Orient House in East Jerusalem is providing security.
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