<\/p>\n
GENEVA (13 February 2023) \u2013 The international community must take action to stop systematic and deliberate housing demolition and sealing, arbitrary displacement and forced evictions of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ experts* said today.<\/p>\n
In the month of January 2023 alone, Israeli authorities reportedly demolished 132 Palestinian structures across 38 communities in the occupied West Bank, including 34 residential and 15 donor-funded structures. This figure represents a 135 percent increase, compared to the same period in 2022, and includes five punitive demolitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe systematic demolition of Palestinian homes, erection of illegal Israeli settlements and systematic denial of building permits for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to \u201cdomicide<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n The experts reiterated\u00a0their concern<\/a>\u00a0over the situation in Masafer Yatta, where over 1,100 Palestinian residents remain at imminent risk of forced eviction,\u00a0arbitrary displacement<\/a>\u00a0and demolitions of their homes, livelihood, water and sanitation structures. In November 2022, Israeli authorities demolished a donor-funded school in Isfey al Fauqa. Four other schools in the area are under demolition orders.<\/p>\n \u201cDirect attacks on the Palestinian people\u2019s homes, schools, livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel\u2019s attempts to curtail the Palestinians\u2019 right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael\u2019s tactics of forcibly displacing and evicting the Palestinian population appear to have no limits. In occupied East Jerusalem, tens of Palestinian families also face imminent risks of forced evictions and displacement, due to\u00a0discriminatory zoning and planning regimes<\/a>\u00a0that favour Israeli settlement expansion \u2013 the act that is illegal under international law and amounts to a war crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The experts also expressed alarm at the Israeli Government\u2019s endorsement and escalated practice of punitive evictions and demolitions, and other punitive measures applied to alleged perpetrators of \u201cterrorist\u201d attacks and their family members, such as revoking identity documents, citizenship and residency rights and social security benefits.<\/p>\n On 29 January, Israeli authorities announced measures to immediately seal off family homes of those suspected of carrying out the attacks on 27 and 28 January in occupied East Jerusalem, including the attack in the Neve Yacoub settlement on 27 January which killed at least seven Israelis. Two families of the alleged attackers were forcibly evicted from their homes, and more than 40 people, including family members, were reportedly arrested in relation to the attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rule of law must prevail in any State action against acts of violence. The sealing of family homes of suspected offenders and the subsequent demolition of their homes is in fundamental disrespect of international human rights norms and the rule of law. Such acts amount to collective punishment which is strictly prohibited under international law,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe regret that impunity prevails, in particular for human rights violations and potential war crimes committed by the occupying power. It is high time for international adjudication bodies to determine the nature of the Israeli occupation and seek justice and accountability for all crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory,\u201d the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ experts said.<\/p>\n The experts have repeatedly raised concerns with the Government of Israel on these issues. No response has been received to date.<\/p>\n ENDS<\/p>\n Francesca Albanese,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967<\/em><\/strong><\/a>;<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Balakrishnan Rajagopal,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing<\/em><\/strong><\/a>;<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Paula Gaviria Betancur,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/em>Special Procedures<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Human Rights, Country Page:\u00a0<\/em>Occupied Palestinian Territory<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (13 February 2023) \u2013 The international community must take action to stop systematic and deliberate housing demolition and sealing, arbitrary displacement and forced evictions of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ experts* said today. In the month of January 2023 alone, Israeli authorities reportedly demolished 132 Palestinian structures across 38 communities […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[6726,5073,2025],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2029,1741,2613,2185,2729],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-285437","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-human-rights-of-internally-displaced-persons","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-adequate-housing","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-legal-issues","document-subject-shelter","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/285437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/285437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=285437"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=285437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}