Alia Lahali watches her family's children playing in the ruins of their demolished home by Israeli authorities. Anata, Occupied East Jerusalem, January 31st, 2012
- DISPLACED -
Anata, East Jerusalem, 2012Unrecognized by Israeli administration, thousands of Palestinian homes and several entire century old villages in the West Bank and Israel are denied building permits and are under constant threat of demolitions and eviction.
As a result of constant Israeli denial for building permits, Palestinians resort to building without permits, having to choose between being under constant demolition threat by Israeli authorities or to be pushed and move from rural areas and from East Jerusalem to the scarce, densely and urban populated areas under Palestinian Authority administration.
The demolished homes or slated for demolition are located in Area C of the West Bank Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, under full Israeli military control and comprising more than 60% of the whole of the West Bank which, along with the Gaza Strip, Palestinians seek for a future independent, sovereign and viable state with its capital in East Jerusalem.
Most of the homes and villages slated for demolition are also located few kilometres from the numerous thriving Israeli settlements which international law considers as illegal. Israel claims that the West Bank is not occupied, but disputed territory.
Many Palestinians, in this situation, are eventually left with no other option but to move, leaving behind their homes, farm and graze land, unintentionally making room for Jewish settlement growth on Palestinian territory militarily occupied by Israel.
Several other thousands of Palestinians remain under threat of dispossession, demolition, homelessness and displacement in the West Bank and Israel. At the same time Israeli colonies continue to expand.