Ramallah- Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, released its monthly report about targeting Palestinian establishments, either by demolishing, notifications of demolishing, or confiscation. The occupation’s attacks target religious, tourism, industrial, agricultural, educational, or official establishments. However, the focus of the attacks is on the residential establishments as a way to deprive Palestinians of their right to safe residency and utilization of their own establishments.
SHAMS Center issues specialized periodical reports (monthly, semiannually, and annually) documenting the violations that the occupation commits against Palestinians.
The report is based on field documentation of the violations through qualified field researchers working for the Center. In August 2022, the field team worked on documenting the violations of the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian establishments throughout the West Bank Governorates. The collected data were processed, analyzed, and produced in the form of tables based on a group of qualitative and quantitative indicators.
In August 2022, the Israeli authorities targeted 139 Palestinian establishments through demolishing, notifying of demolishing orders, or confiscation.
91 establishments were demolished and the owners of 11 establishments, were forced to demolish them on their own to avoid being subject to detention or huge financial fines. The justification given for the demolishing orders is that these establishments were built without a license.
Regarding notifications, 48 establishments were notified with either to be demolished in the near future or to stop construction, where most of those establishments were residential units, agricultural facilities, and livestock barracks and sheds alongside with schools, mosques, and park
Two of the notified establishments are owned by women, where the Israeli authorities notified the owners of four houses in Jufur ed- Deek Village- Salfeet, to stop construction in their houses (one of the houses is already inhabited. One of the notified houses is owned by a woman named Shurouq Hussein Ali Ahmed and the other is owned by another woman named Safa Jaber Ali Ahmed. The justification given by the occupation forces is that the houses are built in an area classified as (c) without a license.
The first indicator within the report is related to the distribution of the targeted establishments based on type. The distribution of the demolished establishments during this month was: residential units/ houses: 27, residential rooms: 6, Barracks: 17, agricultural rooms: 10, wells/ water pipes/ containers: 4, commercial establishments: 4, Livestock sheds: 5, Walls: 1, Car Wash Garage: 3, poultry farms: 1, warehouses: 2, Garage: 1, agricultural pergolas: 1, agricultural barracks: 6, a wooden house, a weddings Hall, and stone terraces.
The notified establishments are distributed as follows: Residential units/ houses: 26, residential rooms: 1, residential barracks: 4, agricultural rooms: 7, wells/ water pipes/ containers: 6, schools: 2, religious establishment: 1, park: 1
The second indicator is the geographical distribution of the targeted establishments where the majority was in Jerusalem (37) and 22 in Hebron.
As for the notifications, either with demolishing, confiscating, or stopping construction orders, as well as other violations that deprive Palestinians of utilizing their own establishments, the majority were in Hebron (18) and Jericho/ Jordan Valley: 10. Based on the geographical distribution of the notifications, then it would be possible to predict the governorates that would be targeted the most in the near future.
The third indicator addresses the targeted population (the owners of the establishments) where 228 Palestinians were affected during August by the practices of the occupation. Among them, there were at least 62 kids and 20 women (according to the available information in this regard).
As for the justifications given by the occupation forces to legalize the crimes, unlicensed building in areas classified as (c) was the major justification. 89 establishments out of 91 targeted for demolishing, were under the justification of unlicensed building in the area (c) while the other two were demolished as collective punishment against Palestinians involved in resisting the occupation.
Concerning the notifications, the 48 notified establishments were all justified of being unlicensed buildings in (c) areas.
As for the self-demolishing, it is one of the worst oppression mechanisms. Jerusalemites are obligated to demolish their houses on their own to avoid being detained or paying high financial fines as they would be forced to pay the costs of demolishing, in case the Israeli authorities do the job, 11 Palestinians were forced to demolish their establishments on their own. Forcing Palestinians to demolish their establishments on their own is a clear interpretation of the oppressive apartheid policy that the occupation applies against Palestinians. Victims are pushed to participate in the crime against their own establishments. In August 2022, 11 Palestinians were forced to demolish their establishments on their own.
Within the policy of collective punishment against Palestinians involved in resisting the occupation, two houses were demolished in Jenin governorate. Demolishing in this sense is used by the occupation authorities as a mean to deter Palestinians and stop their involvement in resisting the occupation. During August, the Israeli authorities demolished two houses in Rumanna Village- Jenin owned by the families of prisoners Asaad Yousef el- Refaei, inhabited by 7 persons, and the house owned by the family of prisoner Subhi Imad Sbeihat and inhabited also by 7 persons.