Home destruction

Israel’s formal annexation of occupied land may be put on hold, but the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank marches on. Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the territory spiked last month, according to the human rights group B’Tselem. Nearly 45 homes were destroyed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem – which Israel has already annexed in contravention of international law. Eight of the Jerusalem homes destroyed “were torn down by their owners, after they received a demolition order from the municipality and wished to avoid paying the cost of the demolition and fines to the municipality,” B’Tselem stated. More than 50 people, including some 30 children, were displaced by the demolitions in East Jerusalem. In the rest of the West Bank, 100 people, half of them children, were left homeless.