3 Demolishing orders in Idhna Town west of Hebron city
” The Israeli Army notifies 24 Palestinians to halt construction with possible –more likely- demolishing act “

On November 3, 2008, the Israeli Occupation Authorities handed out residents of Idhna town located west of Hebron city military warnings to demolish 3 houses and halt the construction on 24 other Palestinian houses, all of which located in area “C” where the Israeli Army has complete and utter control over the territory according to Oslo II agreement of 1995, which placed many of the Palestinian houses in Area C under the threat of demolishing and the Israeli restrictive building policies.

The pretext the Israeli Army used to justify the demolishing orders and the freezing of the constructions is that the structures lacks proper building permits issued from the Israeli civil administration, which is the administrative unit of the Israeli Army in the occupied West Bank territory. Table 1 below gives details of targeted structures.

Source: Palestinian District Coordination Office – Idhna Town, Hebron

Israel’s policy with regard to the so-called illegal Palestinian structures has always been a tangible one. Since the year 2001, the Israeli Army carried out into effect the orders issued by the Israeli civil administration with regard to house demolishing and thus 300 Palestinian houses in Hebron governorate were demolished (See Graph 1) either for lacking building permits or because its location is close to the Israeli Segregation Wall.

To Conclude

The Israeli Army has no jurisdiction to forces building and regulation law over the occupied Palestinian territory unless it has to do with security reasons. The fact of the matter is that Israel has been using the security pretext to justify all its illegal action in the occupied territory even if it violates – and it always do – the rights of the Palestinians to live, or the right to movement, among long list of other human rights violation.

The predetermined house demolition campaign carried out at the hands of Israeli Occupation Army flagrantly violates International Humanitarian Law, and the International Law Rules and Conventions and United Nations resolutions.

— Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: Israel is prohibited to demolish Palestinian houses according to the Convention which provides that: 'Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.

— Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides that:  'extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly' is a grave breach of the Convention.

— The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) Article 5 provides that: 'States' Parties undertake to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all of its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: (e) in particular … (iii) the right to housing'.

In the year 2004 the United Nations Security Council called on Israel to stop demolition of Palestinian homes under Resolution No. 1544-(2004), the resolution states: 'The Security Council called on Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law, particularly the obligation not to undertake home demolitions contrary to that law'.

Prepared by 
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem