Planning, Restrictions Building Land Permits Confiscation on Use and and Home Access Demolitions Introduction 85 “When a house is demolished it does not only mean razing a wall, but it means destroying a family, a home and the future.” Interview with Fakhri Abu Diab in Al-Bustan, Silwan, East Jerusalem (6 March 2013) Home demolitions as policy largely originated in the 1980s, following the establishment of the Israeli Civil Administration in 1981.291 Following the 1967 War, 6,000 Palestinian homes were immediately demolished, such as the entire villages of the Latrun area (now ‘Canada Park’) and the ancient Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Unlike in 1948, forcible displacement and property destruction after the 1967 war was concentrated mostly in border areas: along the Green Line and near the external borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since the Oslo Accords, operations of forcible displacement continue to be conducted in all areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip although to a lesser extent in Area A and in the non-buffer zones of Gaza since the 2005 withdrawal. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, approximately 28,000 Palestinian homes were demolished in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967.292 Between 1987 and 2002, at least 16,000 Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) were displaced by home demolitions due to a ‘lack of permits’. At least 2,000 houses in the occupied Palestinian territory were destroyed in the course of the First Intifada (late 1980s-1990s). Almost 1,700 Palestinian homes were demolished by the Israeli Civil Administration during the Oslo Accords (1993-2000). During the Second Intifada (2000-2004), between 4,000 and 5,000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in military operations, including more than 2,500 in Gaza alone. About 8,000 homes were demolished in the three-week assault on Gaza between December 2008 and January 2009.293 In East Jerusalem, 5,000 Palestinians including 2,586 children and 1,311 women were forcibly displaced between 2000 and 2012 through the demolition of 1,124 buildings.294 In 2012 alone, 800 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes through demolitions. 90 percent of the cases occurred in Area C while the rest occurred in East Jerusalem.295 291 On the 8th of November the Israeli Military Commander of the West Bank issued Military Order 947 officially announcing a ‘Civil Administration’ for the occupied territory. From: Jonathan Kuttab and Raja Shehadeh, Civilian Administration in the Occupied West Bank: Analysis of Israeli Military Government Order No.947 (1987). 292 ICAHD, ‘Israel’s Policy of Demolishing Palestinian Homes Must End’ (March 2013); available from http://www.icahd.org/node/478. 293 Jeff Halper, ‘House Demolitions and Israel’s Policy of Hafrada’, Al-Majdal, no. Autumn 2011 (2011); available from http://www.badil.org/en/al-majdal/item/1697-art8; accessed 2 May 2013. 294 Plia Albeck, ‘Press Release by PCBS on the Occasion of Land Day, March 2013’, Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics, March 30, 2013; available from http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/ PressRelease/Press_En_LandDay2013E.pdf; accessed 19 April 2013. 295 This statistic does not include forced ‘self-demolitions’ nor does it included forced displacement due to evictions, settler violence or military training. See: ICAHD, Israel’s Policy of Demolishing Palestinian Homes Must End.