GENEVA (12 July 2021) \u2013 The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk, condemned the demolition by Israel of the homes and property belonging to the Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa al-Baqai\u2019a, in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
On 7 July, the Israeli Civil Administration \u2013 the arm of the Israeli Defense Forces which administers the occupation of the West Bank \u2013 accompanied by military troops, demolished 27 residential shelters, animal structures and water tanks, and confiscated the community\u2019s belongings.<\/p>\n
According to reports, 11 households \u2013 comprising around 70 people, including 35 children \u2013 were displaced. Among the sequestered possessions were food, water and clothing, leaving the community without shelter and sustenance in the summer heat of the Jordan Valley.<\/p>\n
The community appears to be at a high risk of forcible transfer, Lynk said. Prior to the demolition, the Israeli Civil Administration had proposed to transfer the community to a different location.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis demolition is both unlawful and heartless,\u201d said the human rights expert. \u201cAs the occupying power, Israel is strictly forbidden from destroying Palestinian property unless it is absolutely required by military necessity during active armed operations.<\/p>\n
The forcible transfer of the inhabitants of Humsa al-Baqai\u2019a is also strictly prohibited as a grave breach and a potential war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli forces demolished 55 structures in Humsa al-Baqai\u2019a in February 2021. Eleven of the structures demolished this week were provided to the community as an international humanitarian response following the February 2021 demolitions. Humsa had also been razed by the Israeli military in November 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumsa al-Baqai\u2019a is one of a number of Palestinian herding communities in the Jordan Valley,\u201d said the expert. \u201cThese communities are extremely vulnerable, both because they have limited access to water, sanitation, education and electrical power, and because the Israeli military has seized large swaths of their traditional lands for military firing zones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn contrast, the illegal Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley are left undisturbed by the military. This progressive seizure of Palestinian lands, together with the protection of the settlements, is a further consolidation of Israel\u2019s\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0annexation of the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n So far in 2021, the Israeli authorities have demolished, seized or forced people to demolish at least 421 Palestinian-owned structures, including 130 donor-funded, displacing 592 people, including some 320 children across the West Bank, the UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe discriminatory Israeli planning regime in the occupied Palestinian territory results in a coercive atmosphere, where property demolitions, or the threat of demolitions, drives Palestinians away from their homes, lands and livelihoods,\u201d Lynk said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe again call on Israel to immediately halt its property demolitions in the occupied territory, to ensure that its actions are strictly compliant with its international humanitarian and human rights obligations and to provide protection for, rather than displacement of, the protected population.\u201d<\/p>\n The Special Rapporteur implored the international community to take meaningful accountability measures to ensure that Israel complies with its legal obligations.<\/p>\n \u201cCriticism without consequences has rarely reversed illegal Israeli conduct in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cAccountability has to rise to the top of the international community\u2019s agenda. Only by imposing an escalating cost to Israel\u2019s illegal occupation will there be the prospect that these injustices will end.\u201d<\/p>\n ENDS<\/p>\n Mr. Michael Lynk<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0was designated by the UN Human Rights Council in 2016 as\u00a0<\/em>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0The mandate was originally established in 1993 by the then UN Commission on Human Rights. Professor Lynk is Associate Professor of Law at Western University in London, Ontario, where he teaches labour law, constitutional law and human rights law. Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law and refugee law for a decade in Ottawa and Toronto. He also worked for the United Nations on human rights and refugee issues in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/em>Special Procedures<\/em><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n UN Human Rights, Country Page:\u00a0<\/em>Occupied Palestinian Territory<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Israel<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (12 July 2021) \u2013 The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Michael Lynk, condemned the demolition by Israel of the homes and property belonging to the Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa al-Baqai\u2019a, in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank. On 7 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[2025],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2033,2029,1741,2613],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-255606","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-subject-children","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/255606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/255606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=255606"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=255606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}