Israeli forces are continuing to demolish dozens of Palestinian structures in the West Bank, this time not because Israelis have been attacked by Palestinians, not to make way for new Israeli housing, but because they are in the way of firing zones used for training purposes. In total, according to the UN coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance and Development Aid, 41 buildings were destroyed, displacing 36 Palestinians, including 11 children, because Israelis want some target practice against Palestinians who might one day experience the real thing.
The demolitions, which include a school and which have left 10 families homeless, are some of the highest levels of demolition and displacement recorded in a similar timeframe since 2009. The UN said that last month the number of such demolitions had tripled on average since the start of the year.
In the West Bank, an estimated 18 percent of the area has been declared by the Israeli authorities as "firing zones", and 38 Palestinian communities are located within these areas. Because the Israeli Civil Administration prohibits building in these areas, wide-scale demolitions frequently take place. But this raises the question: If building in these areas is banned, why did the government allow structures to be built there in the first place? If there’s a law, then there’s a law. But to wait for Palestinians to build a house which is not cheap because of the high cost of cement and iron, in places where there are few jobs and little money, then claim the structure is illegal, is devious and deceitful. The only thing Israeli officials have got to say for themselves is that the demolitions are carried out only after several warnings to the owners, as if this is a disclaimer at the bottom of the contract written in small print which makes the whole situation legitimate.
The Israeli military frequently carries out punitive demolitions against the family homes of individuals suspected of attacks against Israelis. That in itself is a crime. One of the current issues raging in the Republican Party presidential race for the White House is that the US military would refuse direct orders to kill the families of members of Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS), these days the most brutal and most extremist terrorist group in the world. If American soldiers refuse to point their guns at Daesh families, even when given a direct order to do so by their superiors, then in the same vein, Israel should not tear down the homes of families whose sons and daughters are involved in attacking Israelis, because it is not the families who are the source of the problem. In addition, there is a world of difference between a bloodthirsty terrorist group that seeks to capture territory which is not theirs and a people trying to recapture land which is rightfully theirs.
The West Bank village in question, Khirbet Tana, is home to approximately 250 people who rely on herding and agriculture for their livelihood, according to the UN report. Because the residents need grazing land for their livestock, most have little choice but to remain in the area. Even if they were to completely change their means of livelihood, an extremely difficult proposition, it would be just as difficult for them to obtain permits in the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, known as Area C, which accounts for about 60 percent of the territory.
At the heart of many of these demolitions is apparently an Israeli attempt to move Palestinians from the area it fully controls to ones under Palestinian security and administrative management, to prevent these lands from being transferred to the Palestinians under a final status agreement. The short and long-term agenda is to clear the areas of any and all Palestinians.
