EU, UN ‘concerned’ by Israeli demolitions of illegal Palestinian structures in West Bank

“The strategic implications of these demolitions are clear. These demolitions are occurring in parallel with settlement expansion,” said coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: AUGUST 20, 2015 09:17
THE REMAINS left after the IDF demolished shacks belonging to Beduin living near Ma’aleh Adumim (photo credit: B'TSELEM)
THE REMAINS left after the IDF demolished shacks belonging to Beduin living near Ma’aleh Adumim
(photo credit: B'TSELEM)
The European Union and United Nations issued statements of concern over the IDF demolition of illegal Palestinian shacks and tents this week that has displaced more than a 100 homeless people in the area of the Jordan Valley and the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.
“The scale of displacement is particularly concerning,” Robert Piper, the coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory, said on Tuesday.
“The strategic implications of these demolitions are clear. These demolitions are occurring in parallel with settlement expansion,” Piper said.
The EU missions in Ramallah and Jerusalem also issued a statement against the demolitions on Wednesday.
The NGO B’Tselem charged that on Monday, the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria demolished 17 temporary structures in Palestinian Beduin herding communities in the area of Ma’aleh Adumim, of which 14 were residential. The civil administration, however, said it had taken down only eight, which were illegally constructed on state land. It added that no one had even applied for a permit for those structures.
According to B’Tselem, the civil administration demolished another 17 structures on Tuesday, of which 10 were residential and the rest used for livestock. The civil administration had no response to that report.
B’Tselem added that since August 5, the civil administration has taken down 57 unauthorized Palestinian temporary structures in herding communities in the area of the Jordan Valley and the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement. It stated that 31 of those structures had housed 167 people, including 101 minors, and that the others had sheltered livestock.
Last week, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee subcommittee on Judea and Samaria met with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai and urged him to do more to combat illegal Palestinian construction in that area, which it warned was strategically placed to halt the expansion of Jewish settlement.