Haaretz: Palestinian home faces demolition while Jewish ones approved

The Israeli army’s civil administration recently approved construction plans for Jewish settlers in an area close to Ofra settlement in the West Bank and prevented a Palestinian family from living on their own land in the same area, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated on Thursday.

“The civil administration on Tuesday rejected a request to legalize a Palestinian house, claiming it was too close to a main West Bank road. A day earlier, it approved the construction of homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, after revoking the very ban on which the Tuesday decision was based,” Haaretz stated.

According to the newspaper, human rights groups believes that the administration’s planning is politically motivated and aimed at pushing the Palestinians off their land.

The request that a retroactive building permit be issued for the Palestinian house in Beit Ummar, a village 11 kilometers northwest of Al-Khalil city, was rejected on Tuesday by the administration’s planning and licensing committee, headed by architect Daniel Halimi.

The administration had previously issued a demolition order for the Palestinian house, which was denied a construction permit.

Halimi, wrote in his decision that regulations forbids the building of houses less than 120 meters away from Route 60, as it both obstructs the traffic and disturbs the people living near the road. “The rejection made it possible to demolish the house,” he said.

However, on Monday the administration decided exactly the opposite regarding homes belonging to Jewish settlers.

“The Israeli administration is in the process of legalizing some of Ofra’s illegal construction, in terms of a new master plan it has drawn up for the settlement. Ofra was built without a master plan, as required, and most of its houses were built without permits on private Palestinian land,” the newspaper emphasized.

The new plan is aimed at legitimizing some 200 illegal houses and authorizing the construction of some 50 new homes for Jewish settlers. However, these houses in question are less than 120 meters from Route 60.