IDF uses live-fire zones to expel Palestinians from areas of West Bank, officer admits
Officer tells Knesset committee method used to reduce illegal construction, Palestinian population in Area C; Habayit Hayehudi MK urges crack-down on international groups who assist construction.
By Amira Hass |
May 21, 2014 | 8:58 AM
Military training in live-fire zones in the West Bank is used as a way of reducing the number of Palestinians living nearby, and serves as an important part of the campaign against Palestinian illegal construction, an army officer revealed at a recent Knesset committee meeting.
Col. Einav Shalev, operations officer of Central Command, was addressing a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which discussed "illegal Palestinian construction in Area C" of the West Bank, and ways of expelling Palestinian residents from areas such as E1, the Jordan Valley and Susya, south of Hebron.
He told those at the meeting that the goal of preventing illegal construction is one of the main reasons the Israel Defense Forces has recently increased its training in the Jordan Valley.
MKs Mordechai Yogev and Orit Strock (Habayit Hayehudi), the only committee members in the meeting, and some other attendees complained that the Civil Administration and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories were not doing enough to stop what they said was the spread of illegal Palestinian construction.
They mentioned the involvement of international organizations and foreign countries in supporting such building. "They are inciting the Arabs and others to chaos," said Yogev, demanding that Israel take strong steps against them. Yogev, chairman of the panel, said its next meeting would focus on the international organizations.
IDF Gen. Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories, was invited to the meeting, which took place April 27. ...
Closed military areas
Some 18 percent of the West Bank is defined as closed military areas designated for military training, while Area A, which is under Palestinian civil and policing authority, is 17.7 percent of the area of the West Bank. Israeli settlements, unlike the veteran Palestinian villages, are not included in the firing zones, and the residents of outposts that have expanded into firing zones are not removed.
Some 6,200 Palestinians in 38 communities live in live-fire areas, making a living from livestock and agriculture. Most of the communities have been in existence since long before Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, and certainly before the areas were designated live-fire zones.
Shalev said that "in places where we significantly reduced the amount of training, weeds have grown," referring to Palestinian communities. "This is somethign that should be taken into consideration," he said.
Referring to the IDF's policy of
confiscating humanitarian equipment before it got to its destination, Shalev said this serves as "a punch in the right places. When you confiscate 10 large, white and expensive tents, it's not easy. It's not simple to recover.” Because of the confiscation policy, the Red Cross had decided to stop providing tents to shepherd communities
whose huts and barns were destroyed by the Civil Administration, he noted.
The European Community and international aid organizations have devoted much of their humanitarian and diplomatic activities to Area C in recent years. As they see it,
the Israeli veto on connecting communities to water, electricity and transportation infrastructure is contrary to Israel's obligations as an occupier. They describe Israel's plans to relocate the Bedouin to permanent communities and destroy various villages in the south of the West Bank as
transfer and
forced removal, which are
illegal under international law. ...
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