Building on the West Bank

Israel passed fewer than 6% of building requests by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2000-07, an Israeli anti-settlement group says.

W Bank building 'bias' condemned

Peace Now says 91 permits were granted from 1,624 requests, in contrast to the 18,472 homes built for Jewish settlers. The group says the data show "clear discrimination" against Palestinians in West Bank areas under Israeli control. Military officials accused Peace Now of distorting the figures, which were taken from official Israeli statistics.

According to an Israeli spokesman, few Palestinians put in applications; if more came in more would be granted. Maybe 6% of them. Maybe 10% if lucky.  The key thing here is to try for a moment to see it from the other side. If you saw yourself as under occupation, thought the occupying force had no legitimacy, saw only the 94% being turned down, would you apply. Maybe just get on and build, quietly, illegally, and hope for the best.  Read on ...

The figures given in the PeaceNow report are shocking:   

1. Main Findings
From 2000 until September 2007:
• For every construction permit granted to a Palestinian by the Civil Administration, 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued
• More than 94% of requests submitted by Palestinians were denied by the Civil Administration
• 33% of all demolition orders issued against Palestinian structures were carried out as opposed to just 7% against the settlements
• Only 91 construction permits were granted to Palestinians, while in the same time period 18,472 housing units were constructed in the settlements (According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, completed construction in the Settlements from 2000 till September 2007)
• 4,993 demolition orders were issued against Palestinian construction, while 2900 against illegal construction in the settlements
• 1,663 Palestinian buildings were demolished in this time period, as opposed to 199 in the settlements.
• Between the years 2000-2004 only 3-6 building permits were issued per year to Palestinians

Compare the facts:
                                                          Palestinians                         Settlers
No. of Construction Permits                     91                              18,472 housing units built
No. of Demolition Orders                         4,993                           2,900
No. of Demolitions                                    1,663                           199

Read the rest of the report, and a focussed view on what that means for one village.

The PeaceNow report is mild in its manner. For more of a sense of how people are feeling, read an typical article on the Stop the Wall site on the demolition of a Palestinian house. The attack on Jerusalem continues: another Palestinian home destroyed     House demolitions cause Palestinians to leave village   is from Christian Peacemaker teams; they regularly post stories here  You could find more stories on sites like the Palestinian News Network.

This is a time for making peace according to both sides. I don't want to be taking sides here, but we do have to try and see it as others do, and we do need to seek justice. And in the end justice will judge a side to be right.

*** Peace Now is the largest extra-parliamentary movement in Israel, the country’s oldest peace movement and the only peace group to have a broad public base.  The basic principles of the movement from the outset were the right of Israel to live within secure borders and the right of our neighbors to do the same, including the right of Palestinians to self-determination. In time the movement became convinced the only viable solution to the conflict was the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories adjacent to Israel, which were occupied as a result of the 1967 war. ....  More about PeaceNow