UN officials criticize Israel for unlawful demolitions News
UN officials criticize Israel for unlawful demolitions

[JURIST] The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) [official website] on Friday criticized [press release, PDF] Israel for unlawfully demolishing Palestinian homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem this week. OCHA indicates that over the past three days, 77 Palestinians have been made homeless as a result of Israel’s demolitions. Over half of those that have lost their homes are children. According to OCHA, Israel destroyed over 590 Palestine-owned buildings in 2014. Demolition of these structures has lead to the displacement of an estimated 1,170 Palestinian people, which OCHA calls “the highest level of displacement in the West Bank since [it] began systematically monitoring the issue in 2008.” The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory James W. Rawley stated:

Some of the demolished structures were provided by the international community to support vulnerable families. Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Israel’s obligations under international law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately.

OCHA further expressed that Palestinians should have the right to participate in a “fair and equitable planning system” to ensure that their housing needs are met.

In recent months conflict between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians, prompting the UN and the international community to call for an end to the conflict. In November UN human rights experts suggested [JURIST report] that the Israeli government’s use of house demolition as a punitive measure in response to alleged acts of violence by Palestinians end immediately. In March UN human rights experts called on Israel [JURIST report] to cease all settlement activity and immediately withdraw settlers from Palestinian territories. The International Criminal Court [official website] announced last week that it opened a probe [JURIST report] into war crimes that have been occurring in Palestinian territories as part of an effort to investigate both Israel and Palestine’s involvement in the Gaza war [CBS backgrounder].