25.11.09: Civil Administration chokes Palestinian construction

25 November 2009

Civil Administration chokes Palestinian construction
For decades, Israel has employed a planning, development, and building policy in the West Bank almost entirely denies Palestinian construction. At the same time, it has allocated broad expanses of land to establish and expand Jewish settlements. Israel has thus created a situation in which thousands of Palestinians are unable to obtain permits to build on their land and provide shelter for their families, leaving them no option but to build without a permit.

In the Oslo Agreements, the West Bank was divided into three areas, Areas A, B, and C . Areas A and B, which comprise 40 percent of West Bank, come within the planning and building authority of the Palestinian Authority. This land, however, is essentially the built-up area of existing towns and villages. Area C, the remaining 60 percent, is wholly controlled by Israel, including planning and building matters. Area C is home to some 150,000 Palestinians, who live in 149 towns and villages, and almost all the land reserves of the Palestinian communities, including those of Areas A and B, are located there. The Civil Administration has adopted a policy not to issue building permits to Palestinians in these areas, and does not provide a planning solution for Palestinian land development.

In recent weeks, the Civil Administration has increased its action against Palestinian building in Area C, contending that the construction was illegal. As noted, building legally is almost impossible for Palestinians. Some examples of the Civil Administration's actions follow.

al-Birah Stadium

Al-Bira Stadium, with P'sagot settlement in the background. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B'Tselem, 16 November 2009.
Al-Birah Stadium, with P'sagot settlement in the background. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B'Tselem, 16 November 2009.

In 1996, the municipality of al-Birah, which is located next to Ramallah, built the National Palestinian Stadium on land lying within the municipal borders of the town, but in Area C. In 2006, the stadium was improved and the finishing touches are currently being made to conform it to meet the standard required for international football matches. The stadium, which cost approximately € 3 million, was built with the financial assistance of France, the German Development Bank, the UN Development Agency, and FIFA, the international football federation. In mid-October, the Civil Administration's Supreme Planning Council issued stop-work orders on the construction, an unusual step since the Civil Administration had not previously interfered in the town's planning matters, leaving the municipality the powers to initiate and approve building projects in areas within its borders. Shortly afterwards, the P'sagot settlement, which is situated a few hundred meters from the stadium, and the Regavim Organization petitioned the High Court of Justice. The petitioners demanded that the stadium be demolished, arguing that it had been built without a permit and that it “significantly increases security problems” in the area. The municipality has, for the time being, ceased construction work on the stadium.

Kafr ‘Aqab

In late October, Civil Administration inspectors served stop-work orders on construction work being done on nine houses in Kafr ‘Aqab, a village located north of Jerusalem. 15 families live in the houses. Most of the village lies within the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality, but since that portion lies east of the Separation Barrier, the municipality provides almost no services to the village. The remaining village land lies in Area C. In the same area, the Civil Administration had previously issued stop-work orders on twenty other buildings, and the area contains dozens of other buildings. The Jerusalem Municipality, like the Civil Administration, has never prepared an outline plan enabling development of the village.

Khirbet Umm al-Kheir

Houses designated for demolition in Umm al-Khir. Photo: Musa Abu Hashhash, B'Tselem, 19 November 2009.

In early November, Civil Administration inspectors issued 11 stop-work orders on all construction in the Beduin community of Khirbet Umm al-Kheir, which lies in the southern Hebron hills. Residents of the village, most of whom are refugees of 1948, arrived in the village in the 1970s after having been forced to leave their homes in the area of Arad. In 1981, the Carmel settlement was built adjacent to the village. The buildings on which the stop-work orders were issued lie in two sections that border the settlement on the east, and are built on private Palestinian land or on Survey Land (land whose ownership has not been decided). About six months ago, the Civil Administration demolished four sheds and two stone houses in the village.

Rujeib

In mid-November, Civil Administration inspectors issued stop-work orders on 12 structures in Rujeib, a village southeast of Nablus. Five of the homes, which lie on the southern edge of the village, were already inhabited. Another six, and a chicken coop, were under construction.

The Civil Administration's intensive enforcement activity violates Israel's obligation, as the occupying power, to meet the planning needs of the Palestinians, and breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention, which permits the occupying power to destroy the property of civilians only when an imperative military need exists.

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Communities Facing Expulsion

Court sanctioned war crime committed in broad daylight

Yesterday, Israel committed an attempted forcible transfer – a war crime – against residents of Humsah. In a break from the previous five demolitions in the community within less than a year, yesterday, Israeli soldiers and Civil Administration staff removed the contents of some residents’ homes and transported the items to an area located near ‘Ein Shibli, where Israel has been trying to forcibly relocate residents. Israel misrepresented these actions as being part of dialog and consent, proving, if anyone still entertained any doubts, it is intent on expelling these residents from their homes permanently. The military’s response, as it appeared in the media, highlighted the fact that the attempted expulsion was carried out with the approval of Israel’s High Court of Justice. Indeed, when the ICC looks into forcible transfers as part of its investigation of Israel, it will have to assess the responsibility of justices as well as ministers and top military commanders. On Wednesday, at around 8:00 A.M., soldiers and Civil Administration staff arrived at the community of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces declared the area a closed military zone and denied journalists, human rights activists and diplomats access. The forces dismantled nine tents and four huts used as residences, as well as 17 agricultural structures, all together belonging to nine families with a total of 61 members, including 34 minors. The forces also destroyed four water tanks, water lines, fencing and farming equipment. The residents’ belongings were loaded onto trucks that transported them to the ‘Ein Shibli community, which lies west of Khirbet Humsah. Community members fled to the mountains with their flocks, leaving the buses brought in to forcibly relocate them to ‘Ein Shibli empty.

9 July 2021

Khirbet Susiya, village under threat of demolition. Photo: Ann Pack, Activestills.org, 15 June 2012

The South Hebron Hills

Khirbet Susiya – a village under threat of demolition

The Palestinian village of Khirbet Susiya has existed in the South Hebron Hills at least since the 1830s. Its residents have traditionally earned a living from shepherding and growing olive trees. In 1983, the Israeli settlement of Susiya was established near the village, on Palestinian land that had been declared state land by Israel. In 1986, about 25 families were living in Khirbet Susiya, in caves and structures. That year, the Civil Administration declared the village’s land an “archeological site”; the land was confiscated “for public purposes” and the Israeli military expelled its residents from their homes. Having no other option, the families relocated to other caves in the area and to flimsy wood frame shelters and tents they erected on agricultural land a few hundred meters southeast of the original village and the archeological site. The military expelled the residents again several times, most recently in July 2001, shortly after Palestinians killed Israeli Yair Har Sinai, a resident of the Susiya settlement. During the expulsion, carried out without warning, soldiers destroyed residents’ property, demolished their caves and blocked up water cisterns. In September 2001, further to a petition by the residents to Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) filed by Attorney Shlomo Lecker, the HCJ issued an interim order that prohibited further destruction pending a ruling on the petition. Ancient village of Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 17 November 2010. Photo: Yoav Gross, B’Tselem. In the following years, pending a ruling, the residents had to deal with an impossible reality. On the one hand, they had to erect homes and structures for their livestock after the military destroyed their previous ones; on the other hand, the Civil Administration refused to prepare a master plan for the village that would enable its residents to build homes legally and connect to the water and power grids, and rejected residents' applications for building permits. The people of Khirbet Susiya were left no choice but to build temporary buildings and residential tents. The Civil Administration then issued demolition orders for the new structures which, they alleged, were not covered by the interim order. In June 2007, the HCJ decided to vacate the petition, without making a ruling. The Civil Administration continued to issue demolition orders for dozens of structures in Khirbet Susiya. Over the years, the residents filed further petitions in an attempt to prevent the demolitions and plan the village legally, but the justices refused to prohibit the demolition. In 2011 the Civil Administration demolished 10 residential structures in the village, six structures used for making a livelihood and four wells. Planning attempts by villagers blocked Currently about 250 people live in Khirbet Susiya on a regular basis, and some 100 others live in it for part of the year, as their livelihood is seasonal. In late 2012, Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights submitted a master plan for the village to the Civil Administration, on behalf of the residents. In January 2013, the state notified the HCJ that the Civil Administration was evaluating the plan and that, until a decision was reached, demolition orders for that land would not be carried out. In October 2013 the Sub-Committee for Planning and Licensing of the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council rejected the proposed master plan. Among its reasons for rejecting the plan, which together conveyed a patronizing and unprofessional approach, the Civil Administration argued that the significant scattering of the small villages – including Susiya – in the greater Yatta area results in such high expenses for the provision of education, welfare, religion and health services that the funds of the town of Yatta are insufficient to adequately provide them. This is remarkable given that the Civil Administration itself supports the legalization of dozens of tiny illegal settler outposts scattered throughout the West Bank, and has refused to connect the Palestinian village to water and power supplies. Demolition of residential tent and shack, Khirbet Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 24 November 2011. Photo: Nasser Nawaj'ah, B'Tselem. The Civil Administration representatives further argued that authorizing the plan would perpetuate the village’s existing social fabric based on clan kinship, thereby barring individuals, and especially Palestinian women, from enjoying the benefits urban life has to offer, such as social mobility skills, job opportunities and cultural and educational empowerment: The structure of urban life means meeting new people, bringing people closer to one another; it multiplies opportunities and broadens the horizons of each and every person within his family, his tribe, and society at large. Therefore, we see the current plan as yet another attempt to keep a poor, downtrodden population from advancing; from choosing between partial income and other resources; it is an attempt to prevent the Palestinian woman from breaking the cycle of poverty and depriving her of educational and professional opportunities. Similarly, by sentencing the Palestinian child to life in a small, stultified village with no means for development, the plan keeps the child from being aware of all the opportunities available to any other person. It is our recommendation that the plan be rejected out of hand. The Civil Administration recommended that the people of Susiya make an alternative plan for a location closer to the town of Yatta. As Susiya lies mere kilometers from Yatta, which is in Area A, the recommendation effectively means transferring the residents of Susiya out of Area C. In February 2014, Israeli NGO Rabbis for Human Rights petitioned the HCJ, arguing that the Sub-Committee for Planning and Licensing had made an unreasonable decision in rejecting the master plan. The petitioners requested that the HCJ issue an interim order preventing the authorities from demolishing the village pending a ruling on the petition. In late March 2015, the state submitted its response, requesting the court reject the petition, claiming there was no justification for intervening in a justified decision by the planning institutions to reject the plan. In their response, the representatives of the state noted that the villagers have continued to build structures illegally. In early May 2015, Justice Sohlberg struck the residents’ request on the grounds that illegal construction had continued in the village after the petition was filed, actions that he termed “taking the law into their own hands”. Justice Sohlberg added that “the Court has noted the willingness of the authorities in the area to work towards examining promotion of an alternative planning cluster”. Talks between the state and Khirbet Susiya then began, and were underway until suspended by the state. On 1 August 2016, at a court session of Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ), counsel for the state said the talks were halted because the new Minister of Defense had yet to formulate his position on the matter. The HCJ gave the state two weeks to formulate its position. Justices Naor, Barak-Erez and Hayut declined to issue orders that the state not demolish the homes of Susiya residents pending formulation of the position. The residents were thus left in a state of uncertainty as to their future and at the mercy of Israeli authorities. Since the residents of Khirbet Susiya filed their last petition in 2014, the state has announced its intention to demolish several structures built in the village after the petition was filed – including structures renovated after they were damaged in a storm and a medical clinic that serves the entire village. On 1 February 2018, the President of the Supreme Court decided that the state could demolish seven structures in the village, which serve 42 people – about half of them children, and some of them ill persons – immediately. The state has been required to submit its position on the village’s master plan by 7 May 2018. Palestinian resident of the village of Susiya, South Hebron Hills, 15 June 2012. Photo: Anne Paq, Activestills.org. Settler takeover of Susiya land During 2001 and 2002, Israeli settlers established a number of illegal outposts on some of the land that in the past had served the Palestinian residents. Furthermore, since the demolition of Khirbet Susiya in 2001, settlers from Susiya and its outposts have prevented continuous access by villagers to about 300 hectares of land around the settlement, including 23 water cisterns. Access was prevented by use of threats and violence, including vandalizing pastures, fields, trees and cisterns, and harassing shepherds. The settlers exploit the inability of the Palestinian residents to reach their land in order to take over some of it. In the summer of 2010 they cultivated about 40 hectares, which is approximately 15 percent of the land area to which they denied Palestinians access. When police files were opened in response to complaints lodged by the Palestinians for this damage, most were closed without effect. Based on follow-ups Rabbis for Human Rights have carried out since 2007, nearly all 126 complaints to the police in Hebron made by Khirbet Susiya residents - alleging attacks, threats, incursions and damage to property by settlers - were closed without filing any charges; three complaints are still being investigated. From 2004 through 2012, B’Tselem monitored 15 complaints to the police regarding settler violence against Khirbet Susiya residents, including physical assault, setting fire to tent dwellings and belongings, threats, cutting down olive trees, stealing crops and other property damage. In 12 of the 15 cases, the investigation was closed on grounds of insufficient evidence or offender unknown. In August 2010, 55 of the village’s Rabbis for Human Rights filed an HCJ petition on behalf of the residents, seeking to be allowed, inter alia, daily access to their land. In response to the petition, the state notified the HCJ in October 2010 that the military and the Civil Administration intended to map the ownership of land in the area and then, accordingly, instruct the forces in the field as to how to deal with the need to allow access to the agricultural plots. Up until mid-May 2013, the military had issued only four orders, barring settler access to an area of 41.7 hectares – only about 13 percent of the land to which Palestinian residents had been denied access – and, in practice, reversed only one incursion by settlers, removing them from a plot the size of about one-third of one hectare (3.5 dunams). The prevention of access to some 87 percent of the area continues. On 2 February 2014 the HCJ vacated the residents’ petition on prevention of access and incursions made into their lands, on the grounds that the petition is non-specific and encompasses separate concerns of ten different families. In their ruling, the justices did address the military commander’s obligation to safeguard personal property and prevent incursions, yet refrained from ruling on the matter. They recommended that each family file an independent petition.

19 August 2012

Bedouin community in firing zone, near Route 578 (Derech Alon). Photo: Keren Manor / activestills.org, 8 Feb. '11

The Jordan Valley

The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea span some 160,000 hectares, comprising almost 30% of the West Bank. In 2016, approximately 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 settlers lived there. Almost 90% of this region has been designated Area C, the West Bank land which remains under full Israeli control, and constitutes nearly 40% of all Area C. The remaining 10% of the region is home to Palestinian communities, including the city of Jericho, which have been designated Area A or B. As these communities are surrounded by Area C land, they are cut off from each other. The Jordan Valley is a fertile strip of land that runs along the West Bank, east of the central highlands. Sparsely populated, it has many open, undeveloped areas. As such, this area is the largest land reserve for future development of the West Bank. It could serve to create urban centers; develop advanced agriculture for export; develop energy project and industry. Instead, however, Israel exploits almost all of the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea for its own needs and bars Palestinians from entering or using about 85% of the area: be it for construction, laying infrastructure, shepherding or farming. The legal grounds cited for this sweeping ban vary. So much so that, in some cases, the same land has been given several different designations. Almost 50% of the area are defined as “state land” – more than half of which were already designated as such under Jordanian rule, before Israel occupied the area in 1967; about 46% of area have been declared closed military zones, including the municipal jurisdictions of Israeli settlements and 11 firing zones; some 20% of the area have been declared nature reserves; and other areas have been allocated to settlements’ regional councils. Israel compels Palestinians to remain within the narrow confines of their communities and prevents virtually all Palestinian construction in Area C. The Civil Administration – the branch of the Israeli military designated to handle civil matters in Area C – issues almost no building permits, whatever the purpose: be it for housing, agricultural construction, public buildings or infrastructure. Left with no other choice, Palestinians undertake construction without permits. The CA then issues – and sometimes carries out – demolition orders for these structures. Even when orders are issued but not executed, residents live their lives in a constant state of uncertainty. B’Tselem has monitored demolitions carried out over the years, counting at least 698 Palestinian residential units demolished by the CA in the Jordan Valley from the January 2006 through September 2017. The demolished structures were home to at least 2,948 Palestinians, at least 1,334 of whom were minors. Of these, 783 Palestinians (including 386 minors) had their homes demolished at least twice. From January 2012 to through September 2017, the CA also demolished at least 806 non-residential units, including agricultural structures. The ban on Palestinian construction and development in the Jordan Valley takes a particularly harsh toll on the roughly 10,000 residents of more than 50 Palestinian communities in Area C that Israel is attempting by various means to drive from their homes and land. The authorities deny these communities any possibility whatsoever of lawful construction to meet the needs of their population, and refuse to connect them to water and power supplies. These communities rely on the scant rainfall in the area, which they collect in cisterns and supplement by purchasing water from private vendors who transport water in tankers. Although the water provided by the vendors costs many times as much as the water supplied through the local pipeline, it is often unfit for drinking as it is transported in unsanitary conditions. The residents of these communities use only about 20 liters of water per person a day overall, for all needs. This falls far short of the 100 liters per person per day that is the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization. In recent years, and especially since early 2013, the Israeli military has periodically ordered communities located in areas Israel declared firing zones to temporarily vacate their homes. The official reason given is that the military needs to train in these particular areas, which make up about 45% of the Jordan Valley (73,600 hectares). Time and again, residents have been served military orders requiring them to vacate their homes for various periods of time, ranging from several hours to two whole days. Should they refuse to comply, the orders threaten forced removal, expropriation of their livestock, and retroactive fines covering the costs of the removal. In some cases documented by B’Tselem, notice of the evacuation was only conveyed to the residents verbally, with no written order presented. From January 2013 through September 2017, the military compelled various communities throughout the Jordan Valley to vacate their homes 140 times. Some were subjected to temporary displacement several times, in some cases with only a week’s respite between times. The repeated upheaval has greatly disrupted the lives of these communities. The frequent displacements take a toll on residents’ income and livelihood, and also inspire much fear and uncertainty. Every such removal means leaving homes and property behind and involves expending considerable effort. Families must gather mattresses, blankets and sustenance (food and water) for themselves and for their livestock, before setting out with their children and flocks to seek shelter elsewhere. Sometimes, the flocks cannot be brought along and the residents have no choice but to leave them behind, hoping they will not come to harm. In some instances, families were forced out of their homes in mid-winter and had to seek shelter from the elements in harsh weather. After some removals, residents returned to find their cultivated fields damaged by the military training. Moreover, various Israeli authorities – including the CA, the military and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority – actively harass residents by confiscating essential equipment over and over again. Examples include confiscation of tankers used to transport water, pipelines carrying water from springs, tractors and other farming equipment, and solar panels that provide a bare minimum of electricity. All these measures are adopted with a view to making the residents of Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley leave their land and homes and to thwart Palestinian development in the region. The overall goal of this policy is to tighten Israel’s grip over the Jordan Valley and further the de-facto annexation of this area to Israel’s sovereign territory, while exploiting its resources. Driving out or expelling residents of an occupied territory from their homes and land is considered forcible transfer of protected persons, which constitutes a war crime. This holds true whether the force used to achieve the transfer is direct or indirect, whether it takes a physical or administrative form, and also whether it achieved through brute force or by creating intolerable living conditions that leave residents no alternative but to leave. All those complicit in committing this crime – including the prime minister, the defense minister, the chief military commander who signs the orders and the judges who lend their seal of approval – bear personal liability for its execution.

18 May 2011