
Since 1967 and the beginning of the Occupation, now in its 40th year, the Israeli government has demolished over 18,000 houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. These demolitions are part of a web of policies designed to force Palestinians off their own land to make room for expanding Israeli settlements, construct a 26-foot high “separation barrier” that cuts deep into Palestinian territory, create a network of Israeli-only bypass roads, and generally “thin” Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants. Ninety-five percent of these houses belong to innocent people and families and have nothing to do with terrorism or security; they are not charged with crimes nor detained as security risks. In 2005, the Israeli military admitted that their policy of punitive house demolitions was harmful to Israel’s interests and abandoned that practice.
These issues are largely obscured in U.S. politics and the media. ICAHD-USA works to educate the U.S. public about the realities of the Israeli Occupation. The fact-sheets, research papers, and FAQs (frequently asked questions) presented below offer information about the ways in which these Israeli government policies result in massive and illegal land confiscation, as well as intolerable living conditions, creating a formidable barrier to a just peace.
Fact-sheets & Papers
- A Policy of Displacement (infographic)
- Is Israel an Apartheid State? (pdf, 1.85 MB)
- Nowhere Left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement (pdf, 2.82 MB)
- The Judaization of Palestine: 2011 Displacement Trends (pdf, 4.49 MB)
- Alternative Tours of Israel and Palestine (pdf, 2.21 MB)
- Jerusalem Center for Women: Monitoring Jerusalem, January 2010 (pdf, 707.1 KB)
- Demolishing Homes, Demolishing Peace
- Jordan Valley Matrix of Control
- Sanctions Against the Israeli Occupation: It’s Time – ICAHD/ICAHD-USA
- House Demolitions Primer – MIFTAH
- The Message of the Bulldozers: History and Impact of House Demolitions, Jeff Halper
- Challenging House Demolitions & Rescuing Human Rights, ICAHD-USA
- Countdown to Apartheid, Jeff Halper
- No Place Like Home (pdf, 1.96 MB)
- A Thousand and One Homes (pdf, 2.71 MB)
- Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch
- Patterns in the Rubble: Home Demolitions in Gaza, Human Rights Watch photo slideshow
- Road to Nowhere, Amnesty International
- Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property, Amnesty International
- UN Security Council Resolution 1554 (pdf, 23.51 KB)
Selected Links
- +972 Magazine
- Adalah-NY
- Al Haq
- Amnesty International
- The Applied Research Center-Jerusalem
- B’Tselem
- Code Pink
- Electronic Intifada
- Friends of Sabeel – North America
- Gush Shalom
- Human Rights Watch
- Institute for Middle East Understanding
- Interfaith Peace Builders
- International Solidarity Movement
- It Is Apartheid
- Jewish Peace News
- Jewish Voices for Peace
- Mondoweiss
- Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
- Rabbis for Human Rights
- Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
- Stop Caterpillar CampaignUS Boat to Gaza
- US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
- Who Profits?











