Israeli authorities have demolished nearly 2,700 Palestinian homes since 1987. Bulldozers arrive with armed Israeli soldiers or policemen, give the family fifteeen minutes to grab some belongings and clear out, and quickly reduce the house to rubble.
Family members and neighbors who protest or refuse to leave can be beaten, tear-gassed, shot with rubber-coated metal bullets, and arrested. There is no advance notice of date and time for a demolition, and in East Jerusalem alone, over a third of the Palestinian families are living under threat of having their homes razed.
According to Israeli authorities, the demolitions are just the normal application of municipal laws designed in the public interest; only buildings that don’t meet code and permit requirements are destroyed, they say. Israeli activists opposed to the policy see it as a rigged game: Palestinians can’t get building permits and Jewish homes are almost never demolished.
The home front in the Israeli Palestinian dispute, in this hour of The Connection with Hannan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Labor Council, David Bar Elon, former cabinet minister of the Netanyahu government, Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and Salim Shawamreh who’s rebuilt his house in the West Bank three times.
(Hoasted by Bob Oakes)
Guests:
Hannan Ashrawi, Member of the Palestinian Labor Council, David Bar Elon, former cabinet minister of the Netanyahu government, Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and Salim Shawamreh who’s rebuilt his house in the West Bank three times.