Palestine Received 66 Building Permits in West Bank as Israel Granted 22,000 to Settlers
Jerusalem (ANTARA) — Israeli authorities granted only 66 building permits to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over an 11-year period, whilst 22,000 permits were issued to illegal Israeli settlers, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the Israeli daily, just 66 building permits were issued to Palestinians between 2009 and 2020, whereas 22,000 permits were granted to illegal Israeli settlers during the same period.
“Because most of the West Bank is closed to Palestinian construction, residents are forced to build without permits,” the newspaper wrote.
The daily also highlighted large-scale demolitions carried out by Israeli authorities since January in the Taawun neighbourhood, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
The neighbourhood is located in Area C and “has not received building permits from Israeli authorities, despite being far from any settlement or access road,” the paper wrote.
Al-Taawun has become one of the areas where demolitions have accelerated across the West Bank.
The newspaper also reported that in January alone, Israeli soldiers demolished a total of 24 Palestinian-owned buildings in Area C for lacking building permits.
Citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Haaretz noted that at least 2,461 Palestinian structures were destroyed over the past two years for lacking building permits — an increase from the total of 4,984 buildings demolished during the preceding nine years.
This resulted in approximately 3,500 people losing their homes during the two-year period.
OCHA did not specify whether the demolitions occurred exclusively in Area C or across the entire West Bank.
However, according to Haaretz, the demolition campaign over the past two years has coincided with the expulsion of around 80 Palestinian communities due to the rapid expansion of illegal settler farming operations and outposts.
The 1995 Oslo II Accord divided the West Bank into three administrative zones: Area A under full Palestinian control; Area B under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control; and Area C under full Israeli civil and security control, encompassing approximately 61 per cent of the West Bank.
Palestinians say Israel rarely grants building permits in Area C, effectively obstructing development or land use.
Palestinians view these measures as a precursor to the formal annexation of the West Bank and a step towards the de facto annexation of most of the territory, which they argue would undermine the UN-backed two-state solution framework.
In a landmark advisory opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories to be illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Source: Anadolu