IDF demolishes illegal Beduin shacks in West Bank

Army says structures built in closed military zone without permits and that villagers were warned in advance of the demolition.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
beduin demolition 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
beduin demolition 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
The IDF knocked down dozens of unauthorized Beduin shacks in the West Bank Thursday the army said. IDF spokesman Zidki Maman said the structures were built in a closed military zone without permits. The villagers were warned in advance of the demolition, he said. James Weatherill, of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said it was the second time in as many days that the army has razed the homes of West Bank Beduin after a lull in demolitions in recent months, said Forty-five people lost their homes Wednesday in a village near the West Bank city of Hebron, Weatherill said. Dozens more lost their homes in Thursday's operation in the village of Mughayir el Dir, 13 kilometers northeast of Jerusalem. The villages lie in the nearly two-thirds of the West Bank that are under full Israeli control, pending a peace deal with the Palestinians. The area holds 121 settlements, but also 150 Palestinian villages with tens of thousands of inhabitants. Alon Cohen Lifshitz, of Bimkom, which advocates equal planning rights for Palestinians, said Israel's policies in the area limit Palestinian growth. Most villages lack Israeli approval for their development plans and even residents of the handful of villages with approved plans find it hard to get building permits, he said, adding that since 2000, only about 90 permits had been granted. A May UN report said that since 2000, Israel had issued demolition orders against around 5,000 Palestinian-owned structures, knocked down more than 1,600 of them and rejected 94 percent of Palestinian building requests. About 350 Beduin live in Mughayir el Dir, a village of scattered tin-and-wood shacks on a rocky hillside. In September, the army told eight families living in the lower part of the village to leave their homes, Weatherill said. The villagers appealed the orders and a court decision was expected on November 1, Weatherill said. But a bulldozer, escorted by two army jeeps, knocked down about three dozen shacks and animal pens Thursday. "Because they filed this appeal, they thought they were good for now," Weatherill said. "So the fact that (the military) showed up today to do the demolition is surprising and troubling," Weatherill said.