Statement issued by Land Research Center/Palestine

Monday 3rd of October

          People of the world are celebrating the right to an adequate housing - as a fundamental human right that in itself provides several other rights, that are also lost when the right to an Adequate housing is lost.

Depriving a human from the right to an adequate housing equals depriving them from a life with dignity, and losing it is a great oppression. There is no doubt that the world is growing and the need for residences is increasing. However, the need for a proper residence for Palestinians in their homeland and the diaspora is more urgent due to shortage of land.

The occupation had imposed forced control over 64% of the West Bank lands, and Palestinian houses-their habitats are a target for the Israeli Occupation which was clear in the 1948 Nakba, 1967 Naksa and until this day. In numbers, the Israeli occupation destroyed 173,133 Palestinian houses until the end of September 2022, which in turn displaced 1,425,200 Palestinian, and confiscated 19 million dunums of Palestinian historical land, all of these Human Rights violations serve one aim; to bring in 5 million Zionist Jewish immigrants and give them a residence on the expenses and lives of the Palestinian- the people of the land.

A residence is a small home where a human lives and grows and interacts with the world, as much as a residence is appropriate, the resident can be creative, active and secured, but the Israeli occupation is the worst enemy of Palestinians' security, and its only aim is to displace the Palestinian people from their homes by force.

Between early January and late September, Land Research Center documented the Israeli vicious demolition of 233 Palestinian residences in the West Bank including Jerusalem that used to be homes for 1200 Palestinian, 600 of them are children, the most targeted location is Jerusalem where 85 houses were destroyed, followed by Hebron with 44 houses, and Jericho and the Jordan valley governorate with 37 houses.

Palestinian houses are not the only target to the occupation, they destroyed other aspects of life in Palestinian Urban, rural and Bedouin communities. The Israeli occupation in the West Bank including Jerusalem destroyed about 415 facilities, 22 of them are public facilities (parks,

roads, mosques, institutions), and destroyed 12 electricity networks and solar panels, 55 barns that used to accommodate 2050 heads of sheep, in addition to demolition of 30 outdoor buildings (bathrooms, kitchens and stores), the fanatic troops also destroyed 45 cisterns and/or water resources that used to provide irrigation water for 1000 dunums. Moreover, the occupation prohibits any sort of land developments like new construction, land rehabilitation, roads' opening in area C, where the troops also confiscated 260 vehicles (trucks, tractors, cars, excavators, baton mixers) to prohibit every possible kind of land rehabilitation or even cultivation.

According to Land Research Center field observation report, the Israeli occupation authorities issued 740 military orders targeting 1485 residence and facilities, of which 777 residences that are homes for 4000 Palestinians, among them 1724 children living in constant fear from their dark fate, especially as the occupation's human rights violations are increasing to serve political agendas, and the geographic and demographic restrictions on Palestinians are flying.

The notices targeted every possible facility at the lives of Palestinians living at rural, Bedouin and Urban communities, about 40 public facilities that serve a number of residential communities were targeted including: Electricity networks, mosques, Kindergartens, institutions, roads, and graveyards. The Notices also targeted 200 agricultural facilities that contain 5000 heads of sheep, and 96 outdoor buildings such as stores, bathrooms, Tabun oven, and a kitchen, and notified 82 cisterns that provides water to hundreds of dunums, and hundreds of sheep, in addition to a number of other facilities.

The Israeli Occupation through these policies not only violates Palestinian right to an adequate housing, but also violates Palestinian dignity and privacy as they are being deprived from their homes. The Right to Housing is a fundamental right, and a basic human right that insures dignity, safety, privacy, and wellbeing. A right stated and insured by international conventions and agreements.

Land Research Center-Jerusalem/Palestine

Third of October 2022

Coordinator of the Palestinian Movement to the right of Land and Housing

Member of Housing and Land Rights Network

Habitat International Coalition