Demolishing lives in the West Bank and Israel
By Hagar Shezaf
A class of young children recite the alphabet, but there’s something unusual about the situation. They’re sitting at desks outside because Israeli authorities destroyed their school four days earlier.
The village of Abu Nuwar lies in the shadow of one of the West Bank’s largest illegal Israeli settlements: Maale Adumim.
This part of the West Bank is fully controlled by Israel, and by making the journey seamless for Israelis coming in and out of Maale Adumim, the line between Israel and the occupied West Bank becomes blurred. Israel uses planning laws to further obscure the lines between where Israel ends and the occupied West Bank begins.
In 1994, Israel began planning the expansion of the settlement of Maale Adumim into Abu Nuwar. The plan, known as E1, has been criticized by the international community. And Israeli security forces recently demolished several homes there, forcibly evacuating some Palestinian families.
The villagers from Abu Nuwar are caught in a Catch-22: If they want to build anything, they need to request a permit from Israel. But according to the UN, because Israel refrains from putting an adequate planning and zoning system in place, most Palestinians in Area C cannot obtain permits. The result? Most structures on this part of Palestinian land are illegal under Israeli law.
Lesson learned
So when the Abu Nuwar school was built from French aid money in February, there was little chance of getting Israeli permission. The day after the school was built, Israeli authorities demolished it.
Israel dismantled or confiscated 235 Palestinian homes or structures in February 2016, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It displaced 331 Palestinians, including 174 children, and impacted another 740.
About a two-hour drive from Abu Nuwar and inside Israel’s recognized borders, the Palestinian Bedouin villages of Um AlKhiran and Atir suffer from similar problems. Unlike residents of Abu Nuwar, these villagers are citizens of Israel and some have even served in the Israeli army. Nonetheless, their villages are set to be demolished to make way for a proposed new Israeli village.
Not on the map
Um AlKhiran and Atir are two of the 35 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert. Those villages aren’t connected to the electricity or water grids and don’t show up on maps issued by the State of Israel. Residents also must deal with regular house demolitions and can’t get building permits because Israel doesn’t recognize the existence of their villages.
“Is there any justice in taking people out of their houses just to put new people on their lands?” Amin, a resident of Um AlKhiran, said at a protest against the planned eviction. “Yes, our lives were tough before, but we live well. We didn’t [cause] any problems, we just lived our lives. Now, we have to fight for our home.”
