The Hamas Movement has commended the recent statement that was released by UN human rights experts on the rise in Israel’s systematic demolition of Palestinian homes and structures during the current year across the occupied territories.
“The statement is considered new evidence exposing the size of the heinous crimes being committed by the fascist Israeli government against our land people and holy sites” Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said in press remarks on Tuesday.
Spokesman Taha said that “the documentation of Israel’s crimes against Palestinian homes and property stresses the need for the international community and the UN to condemn them use all political and legal means to stop them prosecute the perpetrators as war criminals and support the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights and just cause.”
A galaxy of UN human rights experts including Balakrishnan Rajagopal UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing called on the international community on Monday to take action to stop Israel’s systematic and deliberate housing demolition and sealing arbitrary displacement and forced evictions of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem.
In January 2023 alone the Israeli authorities reportedly demolished 132 Palestinian structures across 38 communities in the occupied West Bank including 34 residential and 15 donor-funded structures. This figure represents a 135 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022 and includes five punitive demolitions according to the experts’ statement.
“The systematic demolition of Palestinian homes erection of illegal Israeli settlements and systematic denial of building permits for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to “domicide.”
The experts reiterated their concern in particular over the situation in Masafer Yatta where over 1100 Palestinian residents remain at imminent risk of forced eviction arbitrary displacement and demolitions of their homes livelihood water and sanitation structures.
In November 2022 the Israeli authorities demolished a donor-funded school in Isfey al Fauqa while four other schools in the area are under demolition orders the experts pointed out.
“Direct attacks on the Palestinian people’s homes schools livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel’s attempts to curtail the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence” they said.
“Israel’s tactics of forcibly displacing and evicting the Palestinian population appear to have no limits. In occupied East Jerusalem tens of Palestinian families also face imminent risks of forced evictions and displacement due to discriminatory zoning and planning regimes that favor Israeli settlement expansion – the act that is illegal under international law and amounts to a war crime” they added.
The experts also voiced alarm at the Israeli government’s endorsement and escalated practice of punitive evictions and demolitions and other punitive measures applied to alleged perpetrators of “terrorist” attacks and their family members such as revoking identity documents citizenship and residency rights and social security benefits.
On 29 January the Israeli authorities announced measures to immediately seal off family homes of those suspected of carrying out the attacks on January 27 and 28 in east Jerusalem including the attack in the Neve Yacoub settlement on January 27 which killed at least seven Israelis. Two families of the alleged attackers were forcibly evicted from their homes and more than 40 people including family members were reportedly arrested in relation to the attacks their statement explained.
“The rule of law must prevail in any state action against acts of violence. The sealing of family homes of suspected offenders and the subsequent demolition of their homes is in fundamental disrespect of international human rights norms and the rule of law. Such acts amount to collective punishment which is strictly prohibited under international law” the experts underlined.
“We regret that impunity prevails in particular for human rights violations and potential war crimes committed by the occupying power. It is high time for international adjudication bodies to determine the nature of the Israeli occupation and seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory” the UN experts said.
The UN Human Rights Council said its experts had repeatedly raised concerns with the Israeli government on such issues but they received no response from it to date.
