SUR BAHER, West Bank (Reuters)
Israeli forces began demolishing buildings near a military barrier on
the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, in the face of Palestinian protests and
international criticism.
Bulldozers accompanied by hundreds of
Israeli soldiers and police moved in to Sur Baher, a Palestinian village on the
edge of East Jerusalem in an area that Israel captured and occupied in the 1967
Middle East War.
Palestinians fear that the razing of
homes and buildings near the fence will set a precedent for other towns along
the route of the barrier, which runs for hundreds of kilometers around and
through the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The demolition is the latest round of
protracted wrangling over the future of Jerusalem, home to more than 500,000
Israelis and 300,000 Palestinians, and sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and
Christianity.
Israeli forces cut through a wire
section of the barrier in Sur Baher under cover of darkness early on Monday,
and began clearing residents from the area.
Floodlights lit up the area as dozens
of vehicles brought helmeted security forces into the village.
After first light, mechanical diggers
began destroying a two-storey house as soldiers moved through several floors of
a partly constructed multi-storey building nearby.
“Since 2 a.m. they have been
evacuating people from their homes by force and they have started planting
explosives in the homes they want to destroy,” said Hamada Hamada, a community
leader in Sur Baher.
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| Journalists and Palestinian demonstrators run away from tear gas canisters fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Israeli plans to demolish Palestinian homes, in the Palestinian village of Sur Baher which sits on either side of the barrier in East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. |
The work was filmed and photographed
by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who had mobilized to try
and stop the demolition.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June
that the structures violated a construction ban. The deadline for residents to
remove the affected buildings, or parts of them, expired on Friday.
Some Sur Baher residents said they
would be made homeless. Owners said they had obtained permission to build from
the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The sprawling village of Sur Baher
straddles the line between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Its political geography is
complicated by the fact that parts of it lie outside the municipal boundaries
of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem but on the Israeli side of the barrier,
cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.
Palestinian officials say some of the
threatened structures lie within areas that they should control. The Palestine
Liberation Organization issued a statement accusing the Israeli court of aiming
“to set a precedent to enable the Israeli occupying forces to demolish numerous
Palestinian buildings located in close proximity” to the barrier.
Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations
humanitarian coordinator, and other U.N. officials called on the Israeli
authorities last week to halt the demolition plans. They said 17 Palestinians
faced displacement from the plans to level 10 buildings, including dozens of
apartments.
The European Union issued a statement
saying: “The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the
two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace.”
However, the Israeli Supreme Court’s
3-judge panel ruled unanimously in favor of demolition. “The petitioners took
the law into their own hands when they began and continued building structures
without receiving a special permit from the military commander,” it said.
The court said construction close to
the barrier could provide cover for attackers.
The Israeli military had no immediate
comment on Monday, but a statement last week by Israel’s military-run civil
administration in the West Bank said enforcement would be pursuant to
“operational considerations” and “state policy.”
In some built-up areas the barrier is
a high concrete wall, but in Sur Baher and much of the West Bank it consists of
two wire fences separated by a military patrol road and protected by
watchtowers and electronic sensors.
Israel credits the obstacle -
projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long when complete — with stemming
Palestinian suicide bombings and shooting attacks. Palestinians call it a land
grab designed to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements.
The International Court of Justice in
The Hague issued an advisory opinion in 2004 that building the barrier on
occupied territory was “contrary to international law.”
Israel dismissed the non-binding
decision as politically motivated and says the barrier played a key role in
drastically reducing the number of attacks, which peaked in 2002 and 2003
during the Second Palestinian uprising known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
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