Displacement

On 30 May 2016, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a Palestinian family (the Kirresh family) against eviction from a home in the Old City of East Jerusalem, rented by the family for generations, and the transfer of the property to an Israeli settler organization (Ateret Cohanim). As a result, seven people, including a child, were placed at imminent risk of forced eviction. The home is part of a larger residential complex comprising nine apartments, eight of which were occupied by Israeli settlers in July 2010, causing the displacement of seven Palestinian households. Although the entire complex was reportedly sold by the original Palestinian owners to the settler organization, the remaining Palestinian family, which has rented the property since the 1930s, continues to claim a right to remain as a protected tenant.

The forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians across the oPt takes place in the context of Israel’s prolonged occupation and lack of respect for international law, compounded by recurrent rounds of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. Although no major displacement occurred in Gaza in 2015, internally displaced persons there continue to suffer from the devastating consequences of the 2014 hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, with an estimated 90,000 people still displaced during the second half of 2015. Israeli policies and practices in certain parts of the West Bank, particularly in Area C and East Jerusalem, have contributed to the creation of a coercive environment that undermines a Palestinian physical presence and exacerbates the risk of individual and mass forcible transfers. The planning system applied in Area C favours Israeli settlement interests over the needs of the protected population and makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits: between 2010 and 2014, Palestinians submitted 2,020 applications for building permits in Area C, of which 33 were approved. A similarly restrictive planning regime in East Jerusalem has resulted in only 13 per cent of the municipal area zoned for Palestinian construction, most of which is already built up.

The forcible transfer of protected persons from their normal place of residence is prohibited under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which also forbids deportations outside an occupied territory. Many Palestinian families and communities throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are at risk of forcible transfer because Israeli practices have created a coercive environment that puts pressure on them to move, mainly through the unavailability of building permits, which are almost impossible to acquire. Although Bedouin and herders in Area C bear the brunt of this pressure, forcible transfer also takes other forms. The article below is part of a series of articles in the Humanitarian Bulletin highlighting a range of situations across the oPt where Palestinians have been placed at heightened risk of forcible transfer.

The UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, today condemned the demolition and confiscation of donor-funded humanitarian assistance by the Israeli authorities in the Palestinian community of Jabal al Baba.

Following the latest escalation in violence that started in November 2015, media reports stated that the Israeli authorities were considering the “deportation” of families of alleged assailants from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to the Gaza Strip or elsewhere as a response to “terrorist activities”. On 21 January 2016, in reply to a letter by the Israeli human rights organization Hamoked, the Ministry of Justice stated that there was no such intention “at this stage”. Nonetheless, two related private bills were introduced in the Knesset in March 2016. These received support from the governing coalition as well as from some opposition parties.

Preparations for a new Israeli settlement in a strategic location along Road 60 (the main north-south traffic artery in the West Bank) next to Al Arroub refugee camp in the northern part of Hebron governorate, have been ongoing for the past year, triggering a number of humanitarian concerns. The establishment or expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law and has become a main driver of vulnerability for the Palestinian population, generating the need for protection and assistance measures by humanitarian actors.