In the anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the year 1967, Israeli violations against Lands and housing escalate
May 15, 2016 marked the 68th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba "Catastrophe" of 1967, during which the Israeli occupation displaced 750,000 Palestinians from 628 villages and cities. More than 500 Palestinian villages got defaced; residents of those villages were either internally displaced or became refugees in the nearby Arab countries (Lebanon Syria and Jordan). In that sense, Israel confiscated the properties of displaced Palestinians and gave the right to dispose such properties for foreign colonists.
The occupation didn’t stop after the Nakba of May 05, 1967, it further went to wage another war on June 05, 1967, which later was called Naksa or Six-Day War. As a result, the West Bank including East Jerusalem in addition to Gaza strip, Golan Heights and Sinai desert were occupied. Not only, the villages of northwest Jerusalem namely (Amoas, Beit Nuba and Yalu), Dung Gate and Al-Sharaf neighborhood were entirely demolished.
The Israeli occupation is seen to continue its policy of lands confiscation and indigenous displacement. It prohibits demographic expansion and housing in all Palestinian villages and cities classified as area "C" according to Oslo Accords.
The successive governments of Israel, after the year 1967, put plans and laws that allowed the confiscation of private and public Palestinian properties in West Bank and East Jerusalem areas, the establishment of Israeli colonies and legalization of outposts. And to serve the colonization project, the occupation opened networks of bypass roads, established military camps and buffer zones for colonies, camps and watchtowers and built the apartheid wall. Not only, the occupation stole lands and gave them for colonists to benefit from and designed master plans for colonies to guarantee a massive takeover of lands. All this came to serve the colonization, which is now controlling 38.8% of the total land area of the West Bank (more than half of the lands classified as area "C" according to Oslo Accords). Noteworthy, this area is bigger in size than area "A" and "B" combined together (36.1%).
What remains of the total area of the West Bank is only 25.1% that colonists fight hard to seize to be used for colonial purposes .
It became clear that there is an Israeli escalation in imposing de facto on the ground. It is seen in the monthly rate of home demolition that reached up 17 residence during the past six year. In 2016, the rate of home demolition per month reached 47 residences.
As for structures, the rate of structures demolition during the past couple of years reached 33 structures while the rate of structures demolition in 201056 reached 78 structures.
Demolition orders served on structures and residences during May 2016 totaled 223 ones. With theses intimidating numbers, we are commemorating the war of June 1967, reminding ourselves that what has been occupied is now exploited by colonists.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
