26 February 1997

On 19 February, LAW submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court appealing house demolition orders against five houses in Hebron, all built with building permits from the Hebron municipality. One of the homes is owned by the Vice-President of Hebron University, Dr. Awni al-Khatib. These demolition orders follow a year of harassment, broken guarantees and duplicitous policies in which the Israeli army promised not to destroy these homes, and unilaterally changed the municipal borders of Hebron in violation of Oslo II.

The petitioners began building the houses, located within the boundaries of the Hebron municipality, more than a year ago. After several months of building, in February of 1996, the Israeli army issued house demolition orders on the pretext that they had no building permits. The homeowners produced the permits, and the army orders were rescinded. Then, in April 1996, during the original period when the Israeli army should have withdrawn from Hebron, the Israeli military commander “seized” the area in which the homes are located. The purported purpose of the military seizure was to build settler bypass road number 35. The effect, however, was to reduce the Hebron municipal borders formerly agreed upon under Oslo II, and unilaterally remove the entire area from future Palestinian control.

In response to protests by the homeowners, the Israeli military commander promised the homeowners that their homes would not be damaged by the construction of the bypass road and assured them that they could continue building. One year after this promise, however, and after thousands of dollars were invested into the homes, the Israeli army revoked their promise and again issued house demolition orders, this time claiming that the homes lay too close to the bypass road. This type of demolition order provides no right for appeal, and can take place at any time.

Each of these homes were built before the construction of the bypass road and are located between 120 to 150 yards from the road. Under Oslo II, the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government agreed that only new construction less than 50 meters on each side of the bypass roads would be subject to demolition. Not only are the homes located more than double the distance agreed upon under Oslo II, but three of the targeted homes have a local road and a mountain between them and the settler’s road.

The petition claims that Israeli army seizure of land is illegal because of its arbitrary and specious nature whereby five homes, legally built, can now be demolished resulting from unilateral Israeli army decree. The petition also claims that the demolitions are part of the racist anti-Palestinian policy of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank in that it attempts to remove the Arab population from large areas of the West Bank in order to expand Jewish settlements.

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.