Demolitions are carried out without warning giving no opportunity to salvage possessions © Amnesty International

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to end house demolitions which leave thousands of Palestinians living in daily fear of eviction from their homes.

A new briefing, “As safe as houses? Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes”, reveals the extent to which Israeli forces are destroying homes and other structures in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, claiming they have been built illegally.

According to the UN, in 2009 more than 600 Palestinians – over half of them children – lost their homes after they were demolished on order from the Israeli authorities.

“Palestinians living under Israeli occupation face such tight restrictions on what they can build and where that their right to adequate housing is being violated,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Download the report as a pdf.

“The Israeli authorities are putting Palestinians in an impossible situation. Whatever choice they make, they face homelessness.

“The majority of people are denied building permits by Israel, even after lengthy and expensive bureaucratic and legal processes, so they have little choice but to go ahead without official permission. But as they do so, they know that these buildings may soon be flattened by Israeli bulldozers.”

Demolitions are generally carried out with no warning of the date, giving no opportunity for Palestinians to salvage their possessions or find elsewhere to shelter. The UN has estimated that some 4,800 demolition orders are pending.

Under Israeli law, evicted families are not entitled to alternative housing or compensation, meaning many would face homelessness and destitution were it not for relatives, friends and charities.

While homes are often targeted, Israeli authorities have also issued demolition orders against Palestinian schools, clinics, roads, water cisterns, electricity pylons, sheds and animal shelters.

Palestinians living in the tiny village of Khirbet Tana in the Jordan valley have had to rebuild their homes twice in five years.

In 2005, Israeli authorities demolished the village school as well as a number of homes, animal sheds and water cisterns.

The villagers rebuilt their homes but on 10 January 2010, Israeli forces returned. They demolished the homes of 100 Palestinians, leaving 34 children homeless, as well as the village school for a second time. They also destroyed 12 sheep and goat pens, the main source of income for the village.

Raeda Nasasreh, a 24-year-old mother of two, told Amnesty International: “The army jeeps came at six in the morning; people saw them in the valley and started taking their belongings out of the houses.

“We didn’t have time to finish milking the ewes. They demolished everything here; by 9:30 they were finished.”

In October 2009, Israeli forces destroyed the home of Rida Nimr and her husband Nimr Ali Nimr in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir. Three generations of the family, including five children, were left homeless.

“Some 30 police and special forces, accompanied by three bulldozers driven by civilian contractors, arrived while the children were still sleeping. The police rapidly surrounded and closed off the area,” said Rida.

“The demolition force only took a few pieces of furniture out of the house before its demolition and did not allow us to take out anything except, after pleading, a laptop belonging to our daughter Amal which she needs for her university studies.”

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to immediately end all demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including East Jerusalem.

The organization said the authorities should also transfer responsibility for planning and building policies and regulations to the local Palestinian communities.

In addition, the Israeli authorities must stop the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements in the OPT as a first step towards removing Israeli civilians living in such settlements.

“Demolition and eviction orders do not just destroy people’s homes. They also take away their possessions and their hopes for a secure future,” said Philip Luther.

The following press release was issued on 18 August 2009 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel:

Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert’s proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

A statement confirming Amnesty’s withdrawal has now been posted on the Amnesty International website.

After reports in late July that Amnesty International would manage a fund from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s concert in Israel, groups in occupied Palestine and around the world mobilized to pressure Amnesty International not to participate in such a fund. The Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations’ Network (PNGO) called in an 11 August letter on Amnesty International to reject management of a fund that is to be created from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s planned September concert in Israel. The West Bank village of Bilin had made a similar appeal to Amnesty International. An international campaign of about 1,000 letters to Amnesty International called for Amnesty’s withdrawal from the Cohen concert initiative. The only Palestinian organization that was claimed to be a recipient of the fund had previously announced that it was not involved in the project. Additionally, a representative of the joint Palestinian-Israeli group Combatants for Peace, another previously announced beneficiary of the Cohen concert fund, had informed the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel in writing that the group had decided not to participate in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and not to accept any funds from its proceeds.

PNGO explained in its letter to Amnesty International that Israel Discount Bank, a major sponsor of Cohen’s concert in Israel, “is involved in the construction and the continuation of the Israeli settlement project in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] … These settlements built on Palestinian lands are illegal under international law and are considered as war crimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention.” PNGO added that Cohen’s “concert in Israel contributes in normalizing Israeli occupation and colonization policies.” In a 9 August letter to Amnesty International, the West Bank village of Bilin, a leader in the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement, said that “Israel Discount Bank’s trading room and other computer services are run by an Israeli company called Matrix IT. Matrix IT’s trading room is located on our villages land stolen by the illegal settlement of Modiin Illit.”

Additionally, 19 groups and organizations worldwide explained in an open letter to Amnesty International that “Being one of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a nonviolent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel’s violations of international law and human rights principles.” The groups asserted that “Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa.” They also commented that the Peres Center for Peace, Amnesty International’s announced partner in managing the concert fund, “has been denounced by leading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting joint Palestinian-Israeli projects that enhance ‘Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoring justice to Palestinians.’”

On 5 August, 11 groups launched a letter writing campaign to Amnesty International which has resulted in hundreds of emails sent. Among those urging Amnesty International to reject involvement with the Cohen concert are former Amnesty International USA board member Prof. Naseer Aruri, Amnesty International USA’s former Midwest Regional Director Doris Strieter, peace activist Kathy Kelly, and a number of Amnesty International members.

The announcement of Cohen’s planned concert in Israel was swiftly met by letters from British, Israeli and Palestinian organizations and protests at his concerts in New York, Boston, Ottawa and Belfast, among other cities, calling on Cohen to respect the international call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. In response to the protests, Cohen had tried to schedule a small concert in Ramallah to “balance” his concert in Israel. However, Palestinians rejected the Ramallah concert, insisting that Cohen should first cancel his Tel Aviv gig to be welcomed in Ramallah.

With the international community failing to take action to stop Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, and inspired by the international boycott movement that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa, Palestinian civil society has launched calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott. Ninety-three artists, writers and other cultural workers have signed onto the Palestinian cultural boycott call. Palestinian boycott calls have inspired a growing international boycott movement which gained added momentum following Israel’s assault on Gaza last winter.

Five families in the West Bank hamlet of Hadidiya are under threat of immediate eviction. At least 12 others are fighting eviction and demolition orders in the Jordan Valley area.

In total, more than 150 people, many of them children, risk losing their home and being evicted from the area.

The Israeli army destroyed the homes of 18 Palestinian families and their animal pens in the nearby hamlet of Ras al-Ahmar on Thursday morning. More than 130 people, many of them children, lived in the hamlet.

The soldiers also confiscated a water tank, a tractor and a trailer, which the villagers used to bring water from several kilometres away. They are not allowed access to local wells. The villagers are now without shelter and a source of water during a season of high temperatures.

Many of these families have had their homes destroyed multiple times in recent years and all of them face the prospect of further displacement because the Israeli army has declared the area, and most of the Jordan Valley, a “closed military area” from which the local Palestinian population is barred.

While these Palestinian communities continue to be harassed and chased off their land, nearby Israeli settlements – established in violation of international law – continue to expand.

Next to Ras al-Ahmar and Hadidiya are three Israeli settlements which use vast quantities of water for their ever-expanding agricultural farms. The Hemdat settlement, established in 1997, has “nice, large buildings with red roofs” built by the Israeli Housing Ministry and Ro’i settlement boasts a swimming pool.

Successive Israeli governments from across the political spectrum have all backed construction and expansion of unlawful settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Under the last government of Prime Minister Olmert, settlement expansion increased seven-fold, especially after the November 2007 Annapolis conference, which was supposed to restart the peace process.

US President Obama, speaking in Cairo on Thursday as part of his tour of the Middle East, reiterated his call on Israel to stop building settlements in the OPT. Amnesty International welcomed this call.

“President Obama’s administration must put in place concrete mechanisms to ensure the timely implementation of this commitment and an end to the increasingly frequent demolition of Palestinian homes,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the OPT.

Amnesty International advocates the removal of all settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s settlement policy directly violates international law. In addition, the seizure of land to construct settlements, bypass roads and related infrastructure, and the discriminatory allocation of vital resources, including water, have had a devastating impact on the fundamental rights of the local Palestinian population.

House demolition, like the denial of access to land and water, has long been used by the Israeli army and authorities to force the local Palestinian population off the land. In Hadidiya, Ras al-Ahmar and elsewhere in the Jordan Valley, after each demolition, the families rebuild their homes either in the same place or nearby, but they are now finding it increasingly difficult to survive in the area.

The Israeli army is making increasing efforts to force local Palestinian communities out of large areas of the Jordan Valley. In addition to the periodic demolition of the Palestinian villagers’ homes and animal pens, the Israeli army also uses other methods to push the villagers out of the area.

The Israeli army has denied them access to water, increasingly restricted their movements and confiscated their animals, which are their main source of livelihood.

Though they are very isolated, the villagers are determined to remain in the area where they have lived since long before the Israeli army occupied the OPT in 1967. They have welcomed international solidarity and pressure on the Israeli authorities to protest the demolitions. However, as international attention diminishes the threat to the villagers increases and renewed action now is crucial.