- Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian shepherds bitter at rise in Israeli demolitions
- Date: 3rd March 2014
- Summary: JORDAN VALLEY, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF JORDAN VALLEY HILLTOPS AND JEWISH SETTLEMENT BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT IN JORDAN VALLEY VARIOUS OF REMNANTS OF DEMOLISHED STRUCTURES IN BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN RESIDENT OF JORDAN VALLEY ALI KA'ABNEH WHOSE HOUSE WAS DEMOLISHED AND FAMILY MEMBERS SITTING AMID RUBBLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN JORDAN VALLEY RESIDENT ALI KA'ABNEH SAYING: "The Israeli occupation forces came here on the 29th, they came in the morning of course while we were sleeping at 6:30 with their bulldozers and their soldiers. They gave us 10 minutes to leave the buildings we lived in and then they demolished them all at once, without any warning at all." VARIOUS OF REMNANTS OF DEMOLISHED STRUCTURES FOLDED TENTS AMID DEBRIS OF STRUCTURES VARIOUS OF RUBBLE OF DEMOLISHED STRUCTURES DONKEY STANDING IN ENCAMPMENT VARIOUS OF ENCAMPMENT RESIDENTS WATCHING AS ISRAELI MILITARY VEHICLE DRIVES BY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN HEAD OF REGIONAL AL MALEH COUNCIL, ARIF DARAGHMEH, SAYING: "The occupation has demolished more than 500 structures in the past year alone in this area and now the Israeli army and occupation is carrying out all these policies in order to pressure the people and drive them out. They have demolished these tents and driven out the inhabitants and they plan to have exercises in this area and to build more settlements and military camps." VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN WOMAN CARRYING SACK NEAR ENCAMPMENT ELDERLY MAN SITTING WITH CHILDREN CHILDREN IN ENCAMPMENT VARIOUS OF ELDERLY MAN GIRL WALKING AWAY FROM ENCAMPMENT JERUSALEM (FEBRUARY 25, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING ISRAELI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPUTY SPOKESMAN PAUL HIRSCHSON WALKING OUT OF BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPUTY SPOKESMAN, PAUL HIRSCHSON, SAYING: "In that part of what we lovingly call the West Bank for which Israel is responsible for law and order under agreements entered into between the two of us, we're obliged to enforce, and to ensure law and order. Certain elements in the Palestinian political hemisphere are actively dissuading Palestinians, those few Palestinians, who live in the areas we're responsible for, from applying for permits, or participating in the due process of law. I think that people would criticise us were we not to enforce law and order." HIRSCHSON WALKING INTO FOREIGN MINISTRY BUILDING
- Embargoed: 18th March 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAA4ZKZTR7VPB2Z20DXGWXNRGZL
- Story Text: Ali Ka'abneh, a Palestinian resident of the Israeli-controlled Jordan Valley in the West Bank, has been living in a tent since an Israeli bulldozer turned his own flimsy dwelling into a pile of stones and twisted metal.
"They came in the morning of course while we were sleeping at 6:30 with their bulldozers and their soldiers. They gave us 10 minutes to leave the buildings we lived in and then they demolished them all at once, without any warning at all," Ka'abneh said.
Palestinian officials say Ka'abneh is one of more than 160 people uprooted since the beginning of the year by what they say is an increase in Israeli demolitions in the Jordan Valley, in the West Bank.
Israel describes residents such as Ka'abneh as nomads and squatters. It says their ramshackle dwellings, built without permits and often located near Israeli military bases, are torn down in accordance with court orders.
International aid officials who help the Palestinians find themselves increasingly at loggerheads with Israel, and accuse it of violating international law that calls for an occupying power to ensure the welfare of the civilians it administers.
Last year, according to human rights groups, Israel demolished 663 Palestinian dwellings and farming structures, the highest number in five years. About 60 percent of the demolitions were carried out in the Jordan Valley.
The valley covers about a third of the West Bank and is home to some 10,000 Palestinians, among them 2,700 shepherds or Bedouin, the Israeli human rights group B'tselem says.
Palestinians want the Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of the state they seek to establish in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, noting its breadbasket potential and easy access to Arab markets and underground water supplies.
Israel, which captured those areas in the 1967 Middle East war but quit the Gaza Strip in 2005, seeks in any peace deal with the Palestinians a long-term security presence in the strategic valley abutting Jordan.
"The occupation has demolished more than 500 structures in the past year alone in this area and now the Israeli army and occupation is carrying out all these policies in order to pressure the people and drive them out," said Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian official and head of a regional council that includes the village where a dozen structures were destroyed in January.
"They have demolished these tents and driven out the inhabitants," he added.
Palestinians charge it is next to impossible to obtain an Israeli permit to build in any West Bank zones under Israeli administrative or security control.
Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank says it is working on 19 master plans to permit Palestinian construction in parts of the territory.
In the Jordan Valley, the International Commission for the Red Cross (ICRC), which had been providing tents to Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed, halted the supply earlier this month, complaining of Israeli confiscations.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson said Israel was responsible for ensuring law and order in the area, and had no choice but to enforce rules regarding illegal construction, which he said was related to political activity.
"Certain elements in the Palestinian political hemisphere are actively dissuading Palestinians, those few Palestinians, who live in the areas we're responsible for, from applying for permits, or participating in the due process of law," he said.
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under a 1993 interim peace accord, has stepped in to provide tents to some homeless shepherds. A coalition of 25 aid groups in the West Bank said at least 65 aid items had been confiscated by Israel last year.
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