June 2020 Demolition and Displacement Report

Notes:

There are four categories of demolitions:

1. Punitive demolitions: Houses demolished as punishment for the actions of people associated with the houses.
2. Administrative demolitions: Houses demolished for lack of a building permit. This happens in Area C and in East Jerusalem, under exclusive Israeli authority, though prior to the existence of Areas A, B & C it occurred in other areas as well.  It is important to point out that in almost all cases, Palestinians have no choice but to build "illegally" as permits are rarely granted.
3. Land-clearing operations/Military demolitions: Houses demolished by the IDF in the course of military operations for the purposes of clearing off a piece of land (for whatever reason), achieve a military goal or to kill wanted persons as part of Israel’s policy of extrajudicial executions.
4. Undefined demolitions: These include mainly demolitions resulting from land-clearing operations and removal of Palestinian populations.

*     WASH stands for structures relating to water, sanitation and hygiene.

†    In many cases, notably in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities condition Palestinians to either demolish their properties themselves or have the authorities do so. In an attempt to avoid having to pay the high fee of the Israeli authorities’ demolition operation and additional high fines, many Palestinians are forced to self-demolish. .

Above data is from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA),B’tselem, Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, IMEMC, Wadi Hilweh Information Center

Legal updates

“ Court Rejected the Sumarin Family Appeal and Ruled its Eviction by August 16, 2020

Yesterday (June 30, 2020), the district court of Jerusalem rejected the Sumarin family’s appeal regarding the eviction lawsuit filed by the Himanuta company, a subsidiarity of the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). The court ruled that the family failed to prove its rights to the property and should therefore vacate it in favor of the JNF by August 16, 2020. The JNF received the property from the Custodian of Absentee Property in 1991 and has been conducting eviction proceedings against the family in the courts ever since.

The eviction lawsuit against the Sumarin family is based on the abuse of the Absentees’ Property Law, enacted in 1950 to allow the young State of Israel to deal with the hundreds of thousands of properties abandoned by its Palestinian owners who became refugees during the war in 1948. In 1967 with the annexation of East Jerusalem, Israeli law has been applied to East Jerusalem and Israeli governments have taken advantage of this law in order to ban families, such as the Sumarin family, from their homes and transfer the assets to the settlers.

The Coalition for the Sumarin Family said: “In the ruling, the court did not address the most important, fundamental point, which is that the house was taken in plunder. The JNF’s legal woes did not change the fundamental fact that the use of the Absentees’ Property Law to take over the house was done without good faith, as two government legal advisers and a government inquiry commission, determined”.

In the past few weeks, more than 10,000 people of conscience around the world have called on the Jewish National Fund to remove their hands from the Sumarin family home and immediately stop attempts to throw the family into the street. Among them are 34 recipients of the Israel Prize, 120 world-renowned intellectuals, and 150 graduates and of the JNF youth group.

The family said it was considering to appeal to the Supreme Court. “

( Update by Peace Now 1 July, 2020)

“ Cabinet “approved” 700 units for Palestinians last year – in practice only 6 were

About a year ago, the all-important Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (known as the “Cabinet”) approved the promotion of 700 housing units for Palestinians after severe international criticism over the demolition of dozens of housing units in Wadi Hummus east of Jerusalem and the Supreme Court’s review of Palestinian petitions against demolition orders, which had asked the state to show whether building permits were granted.

On 24 June 2020, the Times of Israel reported that in the year since the Cabinet decision, only one Palestinian building permit has been approved for the Palestinians in Area C – for the erection of one building with six housing units. A Peace Now examination of the protocols of the Civil Administration Licensing Subcommittee meetings (the body that is supposed to approve plans and permit applications for Palestinians in Area C) has revealed that in nine meetings since the 30 July 2019 Cabinet resolution, one building permit was approved with six housing units and 4 building plans have been approved for 20 additional housing units. Dozens of other Palestinian requests for permits were rejected.

It should be noted that alongside the Licensing Subcommittee, there is also a subcommittee for supervision that deals with demolition orders and has the authority to approve building permits, as well. The protocols of this subcommittee are not made public, so Peace Now was not able to verify if there were permits, but experience shows that the subcommittee almost never approves such building permits, and at most, the treatment is transferred to the Licensing Subcommittee. The Supervisory Subcommittee deals with tens or even hundreds of permit applications per year, and generally rejects all of them.

Peace Now: “Netanyahu’s declarations of intent to allow minimal development for millions of Palestinians in the West Bank have emerged as empty speech. There is no justification for Israeli policy that does not allow any Palestinian development in 60% of the West Bank, that which is considered Area C and under direct Israeli control. This policy serves no Israeli interest except that of a small group of settlers who do not want their neighbors to live well and develop. If anyone has doubts about what is expected with the potential annexation of the West Bank, the current policy of the government suggests that the state of discrimination and apartheid that is already evident on the ground will become institutionalized policy.”

For a list of plans and permits approved for Palestinians since 30 July 2020 to date (24 June 2020) go to the link below

https://peacenow.org.il/en/cabinet-approved-700-units-for-palestinians-last-year-in-practice-only-6-were

(Update by Peace Now 24 June. 2020)