U.S. 'concerned' about Israel destroying Palestinian homes: spokeswoman

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Fri Apr 1, 2016 5:52pm EDT

U.S. 'concerned' about Israel destroying Palestinian homes: spokeswoman

The United States is "concerned" about Israel's demolition of Arab buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it raised questions about Israel's commitment to a two-state political solution to the Palestinian conflict.

Israeli forces bulldozed a school in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Tana in the West Bank early in March, leaving 23 children with nowhere to study in the community overlooking the Jordan valley. The school had been built by the European Union in an effort to help the community of about 40 families.

After destroying the school, the Israeli forces returned two weeks later and demolished 17 homes, 21 pens for sheep, goats and chickens, and five outhouses, according to B'tselem, an Israeli nongovernmental organization.

"These actions are indicative of a damaging trend of demolitions, displacement and land confiscation," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a State Department briefing.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-usa-idUSKCN0WY5NM

[Chasstev365]

1. Since when are they concerned?

Israel has gotten away with this shit for decades.

[COLGATE4]

2. The article seems to talking about destruction of Bedouin

buildings, not Palestinians.

[Little Tich]

3. There are Bedouins living in the West Bank too, and they're just as much victims of Israeli

Apartheid as any other Palestinians.

Here's some info on what Israel is currently up to:

Demolition spree carries on across West Bank; 435 people, incl. 234 minors, have lost their homes since Jan. 2016

Source: B'Tselem, 8 Mar 2016
In the first week of March, Israeli authorities demolished 17 dwellings, 19 pens and animal enclosures, and a school in two Jordan Valley communities: one in the Nablus area and the other near Jericho. A total of 64 people, including 28 minors, were left homeless by the demolitions.

On the morning of 2 March 2016, military and Civil Administration personnel came to the community of Khirbet Tana, which is situated to the east of the village of Beit Furik in the Nablus District. They used three bulldozers to demolish 34 structures in the community. They demolished a school comprising two classrooms that was attended by nine students, aged six to ten. The wooden school building was built in 2011 with funding from the Italian aid organization COOPI. In addition to the classrooms, the school had two toilets and a yard with playground equipment. The troops also demolished the following: nine dwellings that were home to 30 people, including seven minors; 16 pens and animal enclosures used by the community’s families to make a living; and a solar panel that generated electricity. The troops also demolished four stone-built entranceways to caves used for residential purposes (the caves themselves were not damaged), as well as four structures - three residential tents and an animal pen - that were not in use as their owners had left the community. One of the dwellings and seven of the enclosures and pens demolished on this occasion had already been demolished about three weeks previously in a 9 February 2016 demolition operation by the military and the Civil Administration. After the previous demolition, the residents of the community received several tents from the Red Crescent, which again donated tents on the day after the latest demolition.

---

These demolitions and confiscations are a direct continuation of the unusually massive demolition campaign Israeli authorities launched in Palestinian shepherding communities across the West Bank in January 2016. Since the beginning of the year, authorities have dismantled and demolished 203 structures, including 105 dwellings, in communities threatened with expulsion; 435 people, including 234 minors, lost their homes. These demolition operations impose an intolerable reality on the residents of the communities. This governmental policy, implemented systematically for years, constitutes the forced transfer of protected Palestinian residents within the occupied area. Click here for further information about the wave of demolitions that began in early 2016, and about Israel’s policy to expel Palestinians from vast portions of the West Bank.

Read more: http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20160208_demolitions_in_jordan_valley

[no_hypocrisy]

4. What's the long game?

Let's say no country, the UN, nobody can stop Israel from taking over land that was reserved for a Palestinian state in 1948. Israel develops the land, has evicted all non-Jewish Israelis, etc. from that land. Then what?

What does Israel intend to do when it needs more land for its population, more water, etc.? Does Israel intend to "expand" its borders to other surrounding countries?

[geek tragedy]

5. how can one raise questions about something that doesn't exist? nt