West Bank, December 07: With a desperate look in his eyes, Ghazi Dodeen is gazing at his house in the West Bank village of Hijra.
“I have always dreamed of building this house on this land,” Dodeen told. “Now, I’m asked to either demolish it by my own hands of let Israeli bulldozers do it.”
The helpless Palestinian man received an order from occupation authorities to demolish the house by himself or get Israeli bulldozers bring it down.
The order, which was sent to four other families, warns that the villager would pay the demolition expenses if the house is razed by Israeli bulldozers.
“I’m torn apart,” a heart-broken Dodeen said.
“Demolishing the house by my own hands would haunt me the rest of my life,” he said.
“And if I refused, Israeli bulldozers would destroy it and I would be suffering all my life to collect money to pay for the demolition expenses.”
For decades, Israel has been adopting a series of oppressive measures against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including systematic demolition of their homes.
Israeli authorities do not issue building permissions for Palestinians who are also banned from renovating their houses unless with an Israeli permit, which they rarely get.
In 1968, Israel enacted a law allowing “illegal” houses to be razed even if permits are pending in the bureaucratic pipeline.
Israel’s HaMoked Center for the Defense of the Individual said last week that Israeli authorities have revoked residency permits of 4,577 Palestinians in 2008, a figure greater than half the total revoked in the past 40 years.
A recent UN report has warned that thousands of Palestinian houses in Al-Quds are facing the risk of mass demolitions by Israel.
Deception
Analysts see the unprecedented Israeli demolition order as an attempt to deceive the world about the situation in the occupied lands.
“It aims to convince the international community that the Palestinians demolished the houses by themselves because they were built (in violation of the law),” said Gamal Al-Omla, director of Land Research Center.
“(The order aims to show) that the demolition is a legal order and has nothing to do with violating Palestinian rights.”
Suhail Khalilia, of the Applied Research Institute (ARIJ), agrees.
“It is meant to legitimize Israel’s forced immigration of Palestinians,” he said.
Analysts opine that the demolition orders are also a means to swallow Palestinian lands.
“It would help Israel to decide any future political solution according to the situation on the ground,” said Omla.
Abdel-Hadi Hantch, an expert on Israeli settlement policy, shares his view.
“The Israeli occupation is issuing this kind of demolition order as a means of deceiving the world public opinion,” he told.
“It is also a way to pressure the Palestinians to leave the area,” added Hantch, a member of the National Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Lands.
“Israel is trying to limit the geographical expansion of the West Bank cities in order to be able to expand the settlements in the future.”
There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.
The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal.
For Dodeen, demolishing his house would nip his dreams in the bud.
“The occupation is seeking to kill the joy in the hearts of the Palestinians,” he said.
“What kind of torture the occupation is trying to impose on us?” the desperate Palestinian asked.
“Isn’t enough our daily suffering from Israeli closures, checkpoints and settler assaults?”
-Agencies