{"id":566662,"date":"2010-05-17T11:19:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=12756"},"modified":"2010-05-17T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:19:15","slug":"israeli-organisation-empowers-palestinians-to-appeal-against-house-demolition-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/566662","title":{"rendered":"Israeli organisation empowers Palestinians to appeal against house demolition threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Weibel meets a Palestinian woman fighting to save her family home from demolition with the help of an Israeli organisation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\t\"Umm<\/a><\/p>\n
Umm Juma talks to a staff member of Oxfam’s partner Bimkom\/Planners for Planning Rights, who has come to help her protect her home from being destroyed. Photo: Catherine Weibel\/Oxfam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nOn a calm morning in the south of the West Bank, Palestinian villagers in At-Tuwani are experiencing two very different types of encounters with Israelis.<\/p>\n

From the roof of her house, 58-year old Umm\u00a0Juma’ keeps a wary eye on a group of Israeli settlers who have erected tents not far from the village. The settlers are creating what is known as an “outpost” – an unauthorised, makeshift settlement often inhabited by only a few people. Under international law all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal, but Israel itself also deems these outposts to be illegal.<\/p>\n

“The settlers block the path we use to access grazing land,” says Umm Juma’. “They have already attacked my sons as they were herding our sheep. Now I worry about their safety each time they leave the house”.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Umm Juma’ serves tea to a different group of Israelis that she has invited onto her roof terrace. They work for Oxfam’s partner Bimkom\/Planners for Planning Rights, and have come to help her protect her home from being destroyed.<\/p>\n

Authorities “strangling development”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bimkom’s architects and planners help Palestinians fight house demolition orders and restrictive building policies that are pervasive in Area\u00a0C<\/a>. Home to 150,000\u00a0Palestinians and twice as many Israeli settlers, Area C is under full Israeli civil and military control, including deciding on planning schemes and issuing building permits. Bimkom has accused Israeli authorities of strangling development for Palestinian communities in Area C<\/a>, with building restrictions that prevent Palestinian communities from expanding and building new homes and schools.<\/p>\n

According to Bimkom, the ICA approved only 5.6% of all Palestinian applications for building permits between 2000 and 2007. Palestinians are often left with no option but to build without a permit, despite the risk of their houses being demolished, leaving thousands of families homeless. These building restrictions stifle Palestinian economic development, and violate basic human rights.<\/p>\n

Umm Juma’s house was built 30 years ago, but she still has to obtain a building permit for the house to be legal in the eyes of <\/strong>the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), the Israeli military agency that decides whether building are legal in Area C. Umm Juma’s <\/strong>house faces possible demolition, as it lies 100 metres outside of the planning boundaries defined by the ICA. <\/strong>Even if the six room house is not demolished it will still be located outside the boundaries of the plan for the village, which means that Umm Juma’s family of 30 won’t be able to legally expand or renovate the already overcrowded house.<\/p>\n

2,450 buildings destroyed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\"Bimkom's<\/a><\/p>\n
Bimkom’s architects and planners help Palestinians fight house demolition orders and restrictive building policies that are pervasive in Area C of the occupied West Bank. Photo: Catherine Weibel\/Oxfam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe villagers of At-Tuwani complain that the ICA serves demolition orders – approximately 2,450 for Palestinian-owned structures without a permit in the last 12 years, according to OCHA<\/a> – but offers no services. They’ve been asking for their village to be connected to the electrical network for years, but the electrical network serving the neighbouring Israeli settlements still bypasses At-Tuwani.<\/p>\n

According to Bimkom, the outline plans drawn by the ICA for Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank are rudimentary at best. Bimkom<\/em> architect Alon<\/em> Cohen-Lipshitz explains how two houses were not included in the plan for At-Tuwani, even though they’re located just a stone’s throw away from other houses that were included. “When asked why he decided to leave these two houses outside the plan for At-Tuwani, the ICA planner told us he had mistaken these houses for big rocks. He had never set foot in the village – he drew his plan entirely from an aerial picture.”<\/p>\n

Bimkom has filed an official objection to the plan for At-Tuwani, demanding significant revisions. If the objection is rejected and Umm Juma’s house is still outside the plan, the villagers and Bimkom might appeal the decision in front of the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

For the time being, Umm Juma’ simply hopes that the house she’s been living in for 30 years won’t be destroyed.<\/p>\n

Oxfam in action: crisis in Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Weibel meets a Palestinian woman fighting to save her family home from demolition with the help of an Israeli organisation. Umm Juma talks to a staff member of Oxfam’s partner Bimkom\/Planners for Planning Rights, who has come to help her protect her home from being destroyed. Photo: Catherine Weibel\/Oxfam On a calm morning in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}