The link between Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians from their homes is now ‘abundantly clear’, says UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.
‘Many displacements are taking place where settlements are expanding and with it we are seeing an upturn in vicious attacks by Jewish settlers,’ Gunness said.
‘Palestinians are being thrown off their ancestral lands to make way for settlers.’
Gunness was responding to figures released on Tuesday by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees which showed a sharp rise in demolitions of Palestinian homes and livelihood structures by Israeli authorities in the West Bank.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said 356 structures had been demolished in the first six months of this year, compared with 431 for the whole of 2010.
And the agency said 700 people had been displaced by the demolitions in the first six months of 2011, compared with 594 in the whole of 2010.
In June and July, some 605 Palestinians were displaced or affected by demolitions, many of whom were children.
Israel’s restrictions on movement, confiscation of land and resources, revocation of residency rights, harassment from the Israeli military, settler attacks and lack of protection against settler attacks were also causes of displacement in the West Bank, said the UN agency.
Israel’s demolitions and policies in Area C – the 60 per cent of the West Bank under full Israeli control – were driving already poor families deeper into poverty, Gunness said.
‘There is growing evidence that it is destroying the very fabric of these communities and ultimately contributing to a demographic shift which is changing the ethnic make-up of the West Bank,’ he noted.
Israel only allows Palestinians to build on one per cent of Area C under a system UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pilay has condemned as discriminatory. Most demolitions occur in Area C.
Israel says its demolitions of homes are based only on whether the structures in question have the appropriate permits.
But Gunness said demolitions had escalated in areas targeted for settlement expansion, adding that it was ‘a cause of great concern’.
Furthermore, says the UN official, it is ‘virtually impossible’ for Palestinians to obtain permission to build on their land ‘while Israeli settlements receive preferential treatment in the allocation of water and land, and approval of development plans’.
UNRWA has urged the Israeli government to end the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in the occupied territories ‘including immediately ceasing demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures’.
‘We call for transparency, accountability and an end to policies and practices that violate Israel’s obligations under international law,’ states UNRWA.
Israel’s construction of Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land is illegal under international law.
The last round of peace talks collapsed over Israel’s refusal to extend a partial freeze on settlement construction.
The Palestinians say they will not negotiate while Israel builds on land which would be a Palestinian state under an agreement with the UN.
Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft fired on Gaza City early Thursday morning, witnesses said.
Two air raids targeted military sites including one belonging to Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades.
There were no immediate reports of injury or damage following the attacks.
Israel’s army said in a statement that the airstrikes targeted two military sites in the north and a tunnel in the south, claiming that the attacks were in response to rocket fire.
‘These sites were targeted in response to the rockets fired from Gaza at Israel’s southern communities over the past few days,’ an army statement said.
Two Grad rockets struck Israel on Wednesday, the statement said.
it added that Israel will ‘respond with determination to any attempt to use terror against the State of Israel. The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) holds the Hamas terrorist organisation solely responsible for any terrorist activity’ in Gaza, continued the army statement.
The Thursday airstrikes were the first in two days, after Israeli warplanes struck two targets on Tuesday in the northern and southern parts of the enclave. No injuries were reported.
The army said those attacks were also in response to rocket fire that injured one person.
Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control in 2007.
Rights agencies have condemned the blockade as a form of collective punishment.
l a top Palestinian official says an Arab League follow-up committee endorsement of a final draft of the request for statehood to be presented to the UN General Assembly, has made Palestinians even more determined to seek UN membership.
‘The Palestinian train is now heading towards New York,’ Saeb Erekat said late on Wednesday during the Arab League committee’s meeting in Doha, Qatar.
The Arab League follow-up committee is chaired by Qatar, and comprises the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Lebanon.
Erekat said after the Doha meeting that the members of the committee ‘reached a final agreement to request the full support for a Palestinians state within the 1967 borders with its capital Jerusalem’.
He added that the request ‘will be ready to present before the next UN General Assembly session’ in September.
The committee members also agreed to ‘double their efforts to garner support from members of the UN Security Council,’ said Erekat.
With support for statehood growing stronger, Erekat brushed off comments made on Tuesday by an Israeli government official as a public relations stunt.
The official had said that if the Palestinians drop their UN membership bid his country would be willing to begin new peace talks based on the 1967 border lines.
Erekat claimed the officials’ statements were ‘leaked’ from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Relaunched talks between Israel and the PLO last September ground to a halt later the same month when Israel declined to renew a partial settlement construction freeze. The talks have been on hold ever since.
however, PNA President Mahmud Abbas has insisted the bid for statehood does not rule out the possibility of new peace talks, provided there is a clear set of parameters for any new negotiations and Israel stops building on occupied land the Palestinians need for a future state.
the United States is pressing the Palestinians to resume talks with Israel by threatening a Security Council veto on their bid for independence.
But following the Arab League follow-up committee’s backing, Erekat urged the US government to ‘reconsider its position’.
