ICAHD Peace Center 'Beit Arabiya' Demolished for the Fifth Time

A list of actions that people can take as a result of this evening's demolitions will be posted on the ICAHD UK website within the next twenty-four hours.

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 ICAHD Peace Center 'Beit Arabiya' Demolished  for the Fifth Time 02:10 , 24-01-12   

Israeli authorities demolished  Beit Arabiya (“Arabiya’s House”)  last night (Monday, January 23rd) for the fifth  time, along with structures in the East Anata Bedouin compound.   Beit Arabiya, Located  in the West Bank town of Anata (Area C) just to the northeast of  Jerusalem, is a living symbol of resistance to Occupation and  the desire for justice and peace.  

As its name  suggests, Beit Arabiya is a home belonging to Arabiya  Shawamreh, her husband Salim and their seven children, a Palestinian  family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli  authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD's Palestinian, Israeli  and international peace activists, before being demolished again  last night.     At around 11p.m. Monday, a bulldozer  accompanied by a contingent of heavily armed Israeli soldiers  appeared on the Anata hills, to promptly demolish Beit Arabiya,  along with residential and agricultural structures in the nearby  Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin compound. 3 family homes were demolished  along with numerous animal pans, and 20 people including young  children were displaced, left exposed to the harsh desert  environment. While standing in solidarity with Palestinians, ICAHD  staff and activists were repeatedly threatened by Israeli  soldieries. ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain was beaten and sustained  minor injuries.    

Beit Arabiya was issued a demolition  order by Israeli authorities back in 1994, following their failure  to grant a building permit. It has since been demolished four times,  to be rebuilt by ICAHD activists. Following a reissue of the  demolition order last Thursday, came last night's fifth demolition.  ICAHD Director, Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed  to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. "We shall  rebuild, we must rebuild forthwith, as an act of political defiance  of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians" said  Halper.    

Beit Arabiya has become a symbol of  resistance to the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank and Israeli  demolition policy. "ICAHD is as determined as always to rebuild the  home, and endure in its struggle to bring about justice and peace"  added Halper.    Salim and Arabiya, along with their  neighbors and friends stood last night and watched as this tragedy  unfold once again. Arabiya and Salim have dedicated their home as a  center for peace in the memories of Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan,  two women (an American and a Palestinian) who died resisting home  demolitions in Gaza. In the past decade ICAHD has hosted numerous  visitors at Beit Arabiya, and based its annul rebuilding camp at the  house, rebuilding 185 demolished Palestinian  homes.   

Only earlier this month, ICAHD extended  an invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate  Housing to visit Beit Arabiya during her country visit to the  Occupied Palestinian Territory scheduled for later in the month. "It  is our hope, that while we cannot extend the same hospitality to the  Special Raportueor, Prof. Raquel Rolnik will visit the ruins of Beit  Arabiya, and report on the utter cruelty, and illegality of Israeli  policies and practices, and that members of the international  community will follow in her footsteps". " said ICAHD Co-Director  Itay Epshtain.   

 For more information and coordination  of visits to Beit Arabiya, kindly contact Itay Epshtain  at itay@icahd.org<mailto:itay@icahd.org>  or  +972-54-2623306 

Additional  Information    House demolitions and forced evictions  are among Israel’s most heinous practices in the Occupied  Palestinian Territory (OPT). In 2011, a record year of displacement,  a total of 622 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israeli  authorities, of which 36% (or 222) were family homes; the remainder  were livelihood-related (including water storage and agricultural  structures), resulting in 1,094 people displaced, almost double the  number for 2010. The Jordan Valley sustained the largest number  of demolitions (32% of total structures demolished, 40% of  residential structures demolished, 37% of people displaced), with  199 structures demolished and 401 people displaced.

Israel  now controls 40% of the West Bank through 149 settlements and 102  outposts, housing more than 500,000 Jewish Israelis, as well as  through closed military zones and declared nature reserves. In  addition, house demolitions, forced evictions, and land  expropriation, exacerbated by settler violence and the economic  effects of movement restrictions, have left Palestinian communities  struggling to make a living. Palestinians live in constant fear of  displacement and dispersion, while Israel secures its domination and  control.   

The demolition of Palestinian homes  is politically motivated and strategically informed. The goal is to  confine the 4 million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem,  and Gaza to small enclaves, thus effectively foreclosing any viable  Palestinian state and ensuring Israeli control, and to allow for the  expropriation of land, the ethnic displacement of Palestinians, and  the Judaization of the Occupied West  Bank.      The recent ICAHD report 'The  Judaization of Palestine: 2011 Displacement Trends' provides a  political analysis of the root causes and consequences of Israel’s  house demolition policy, focusing on the demolition of Palestinian  homes and other structures in the Occupied West Bank. Click here to read the report…