Thursday September 10, 2009 12:31 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News
In response to a petition by an Israeli settlement group, the Israeli High Court ruled Wednesday that the government of Israel must demolish two Palestinian homes in the villages of al-Sawaya and Yatma.
Palestinian home demolished (photo by the Mirror)
The Israeli petitioner, a group known as 'Regavim' whose mission is to “preserve the nation's lands”, argued that the Israeli military, which carries out demolition orders, makes a distinction between Israelis and Palestinians in enforcing the orders. No one in the Israeli Court mentioned the fact that the Palestinian Territories are under Israeli military occupation, and are thus subject to a different set of standards and rights than Israeli settlers who are illegally occupying Palestinian land.
The Israeli military carries out hundreds of demolition orders against Palestinians each year, and an average of 1 – 2 demolitions of Israeli settlements each year. But the Israeli group 'Regavim' made the argument that Israeli structures are being unfairly and disproportionately targeted, and that the military should instead enforce demolition orders against Palestinians.
Since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupying forces have issued extraordinarily few building permits for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, Israeli troops have facilitated the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians into newly-constructed housing developments, known as settlements, constructed on illegally-seized Palestinian land. The Israeli settlers who move onto Palestinian land are allowed to build without any permits, and once they construct a certain amount of infrastructure, the Israeli government is required by its own law to recognize the settlement and construct infrastructure -- roads, electricity, water pipes – to support the settlement's existence and expansion. There are currently over 300 Israeli settlements constructed in this way on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melcer, who worked as the lawyer for Israeli settlements before becoming a Supreme Court Judge, challenged the government's priorities, saying that they "lack clear and orderly guidelines regarding which cases action is or is not taken on, in order to prove that no distinction is being made between the communities."
The Judge failed to note that because Palestinians are under occupation, and thus a protected population, they should be subject to a different set of standards than Israelis who construct settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
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