Understanding home demolitions in Yatma

The policy of demolishing Palestinian homes within the West Bank appears to be an example of Israel establishing a bargaining position when dealing with the international pressure to stop illegal settlement building. By arbitrarily commencing a policy of home demolitions, the Israeli government has given itself bargaining power by which it can trade off some other concession in return for stopping its home demolitions. This may include protecting some of the illegal Israeli settlements.

All Palestinian construction in Israeli controlled ‘area c’ must be approved  by Israeli authorities. In practise permission is rarely given. This means that anything built in these areas is subject to arbitrary removal at any time, even without demolition orders. Demolition orders have been in effect for many homes in Yatma for time, but haven’t been acted on since a few demolition orders were carried out several years ago. Recently a radical settler group Regavim has been pressuring the government to carry them out.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is the primary organisation fighting home demolitions, and a good explanation of the issue can be found on their web site.

Pending demolition orders keep Palestinian communities in a state of anxiety, because of the uncertainty about when the orders will be enforced, with the conflict and displacement that results.

Abductions by Israelis continue in the West Bank

News sources reported that Israeli forces arrested nine Palestinians from across the West Bank on 7 February. One of those abducted was from Yatma, according to a Palestinian source.The Yatma resident was an 18 year old youth.

An Israeli source stated that two of the nine were from Yatma, and that those abducted were being arrested for ‘terrorism’ offences.

Israeli Occupation Forces continue to target Palestinians in the West Bank for alleged terrorism offences, overriding local Palestinian authorities. Typically those abducted will be held without charges, and little or no information released about their alleged offences.

 

Residents of Nabi Saleh Try to Reach Their Fields

This BBC video shows the conflict between peaceful Palestinians trying to reach their fields, and the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Nabi Saleh is in the Ramallah district, rather than the Nablus district, where Yatma is located. But it serves to illustrate the difficulty that villagers face whenever Israeli settlers choose to occupy Palestinian land, defended by occupation forces.

John Lynes Back in the UK After Challenging Israeli Blockade

John Lynes is back in the UK. John was detained and deported from Ben Gurion Airport yesterday. His offence was to state clearly that he intended to visit a refugee camp in Bethlehem, in the Occupied Palestinan Territories, at the invitation of Palestinians and various NGO’s.

A BBC video featuring John can be seen here.

An article from the Hastings Observer at the point of arrest can be seen here. Another earlier account from a blogger is here.

Israeli officials stated their resolve to stop ‘activists’ from visiting Palestine. Israeli occupation forces long ago disabled airports in the West Bank and Gaza and now require all visitors by air to go through Israeli airports. Visitors intending to go to the West Bank are treated with extreme suspicion regardless of their peaceful intentions. It is common practise that persons wishing to visit Palestine must lie, and convince Israeli authorities that they are simply tourists.

John’s visit was part of a symbolic act subsequently dubbed the ‘flytilla’. Hundreds of people from Europe and the US responded to the invitation and all refused to go through the charade of persuading the Israeli authorities that they were pilgrims or tourists. They told the truth and refused to be voluntarily repatriated to their home countries.   Israeli border agents normally do not allow any activist to enter Palestine. Their definition of ‘activist’ is very broad.

John, who is a Quaker and a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, has visited the West Bank many times, trying to build understanding between both sides of the conflict. One of his many jobs was escorting Palestinian children to school, through checkpoints and past hostile settlers.

John is back home in the UK and believes his actions, and those of the other participants have served to highlight the harshness and injustice of the Israeli blockade of peaceful travel.