In the shadow of Russia's war with Ukraine and the US with Iran, Israeli authorities released further eviction and demolition orders for Palestinian houses in Kafr Aqab, north of illegally occupied east Jerusalem. The decisions include 22 residential buildings with dozens of families surviving in. The authoritative justification is violations of construction regulations, but human rights organisations have for years shown that the licence strategy for Palestinians is constructed in a discriminatory way, making it practically impossible to build legally.
Jewish panic of displacement in Kafr Aqab is part of a long-standing process of demolishing Palestinian homes, expanding Israeli settlements and gradually reducing Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem and West Bank. Organisations specified as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty global or Israeli B’Tselem estimation that forced displacement of civilians in occupied territories may violate global humanitarian law, and any of them describe these activities as part of a policy of forced population transfer.
For many Palestinians, this is no longer a series of single administrative decisions, but a systematic policy to change the demographic structure of illegally occupied areas. Subsequent demolition orders, land confiscations, settlement improvement and force by any settlers make an atmosphere of permanent uncertainty and fear. At the same time, the Israeli government continues its intensive expansion programme for West Bank settlements, which is criticised by a large part of the global community.
There are increasingly reports that any of the utmost nationalist groups and any representatives of the Israeli authorities are creating a climate of force against Palestinians. In fresh months, global organisations have repeatedly warned about the emergence in settlement violence, the intimidation of residents and the forced leaving their homes. This does not mean that work can be attributed to the full judaic society – work concerns circumstantial perpetrators and state policies.
The past of Europe knows akin mechanisms of displacement of civilians. In Poland, 1 of the most dramatic examples was the German displacement in Zamość from 1942 to 1943. The business authorities of the 3rd Reich then removed Polish residents from their homes, took over farms and settled German colonists in their place. Thousands of families were separated and children were taken to camps or Germany, where they were Germanized.
Comparing the modern situation of Palestinians to Zamość is not accidental. The same can be found in the mechanics of action of the authorities: the usage of military and administrative advantage to gradually displace indigenous civilians from areas considered strategical and to replace them with another "better" population.
The forced displacement of civilians, the demolition of homes and the permanent deprivation of people's ability to live on their own land stay among the most disgusting actions in modern armed conflicts. Their consequences go far beyond the demolished buildings – they mean the failure of life, the breakdown of local communities and deepening the spiral of common hostility.
Every subsequent decision by judaic people to demolish a home in Kafr Aqab or another towns of the occupied West Bank becomes not only a problem of local families, but besides another component of the conflict that has remained unresolved for decades and the civilian population remains the main victims.
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