OCHA: Palestinians Prevented From Building On 44% Of West Bank Lands

Wednesday December 16, 2009 01:12 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA) reported that the Israeli occupation government is preventing the Palestinians from building on 44% of West Bank lands as it allocated these areas to settlements and the military.

The OCHA added that Israel is imposing restrictions on the Palestinians preventing them from building and accessing their lands located in areas “C”.

This issue, OCHA said, is making it difficult for the Palestinians to develop their infrastructure, including the construction of schools and medical centers.

Dozens of thousands of Palestinians are not granted construction permits from the Israeli authorities, an issue that forces them to build without permits.

The OCHA said that Israel demolished 180 constructions this year in areas classified as C. It further called on Israel to stop the demolishing of Palestinian homes and to issue the needed construction permits in Palestinian areas under Israeli control.

The office demanded Israel to halt all of its settlement activities in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

It said that since 1967, consecutive Israeli governments have also implemented a range of restrictions on the Palestinians, preventing them from fully using their lands, including preventing them from constructing any buildings or structures.

Nearly 60% of the West Bank is classified by Israel as area C which was set in the Oslo peace deals of the 1990’s.

But an interim agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1995 states that Israel must gradually transfer power and responsibility in area C to the Palestinian Authority. Area C is under the control of the so-called Civil Administration which is controlled by the military.

'As a result, though the arrangements set up in the Interim Agreement were intended to last no longer than 1999, ten years later, any Area C construction, whether a private home, an animal shelter or a donor-funded infrastructure project, still requires the approval of the Israeli Civil Administration Office, which is under the authority of the Israeli Army,' OCHA concluded.

Palestinian Man Prevented By Jewish Municipality From Building On His Own Land

Tuesday December 15, 2009 03:23 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Aadel Suad, a Palestinian resident of the town of Mitzpe Ramon in southern Israel, has been prevented for twelve years from building on his own land, and continues to live in a temporary shack with his family.
When Suad first applied for a permit to build a home in 1997, he says a senior official told him "Don't waste your time. We'll keep you waiting for 30 years."

He said that they made the reason very clear: they do not want Palestinians in their otherwise all-Jewish town.

According to Suad, “"We didn't invade the plot and we didn't take over the land. My grandfather has been here since the Turks. We have a land registry document proving ownership of three acres."

The Israeli town of Mitzpe Ramon was founded in 1979 on formerly Palestinian land. Most of the former Palestinian residents were displaced, but Aadel Suad managed to hold onto the land that had been in his family for generations. The new municipality then redefined his land as a ‘development area’, and split his plot into two parts.

He was allowed to remain on his land with his family, but prevented him from building a home. The municipality repeatedly attempted to push him off his land and into another area of southern Israel, but he refused to accept the illegal confiscation of his land.

Now, after finally receiving his construction permit in 2007, he has again been refused the ability to build on his land, with the excuse that there is no sewage line in the area.

Suad told reporters of the most recent denial, "It's clear that the threat I heard in 1997 is coming true. They don't want us here. But I'll keep fighting until my children and I live on our private land."

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