A group of 30 rabbis has criticized the \u201cunjust\u201d demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank in a letter to Israel\u2019s outgoing ambassador to the UK.<\/p>\n
The British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights spoke out against the impending destruction of a small Palestinian community in Susiya in the West Bank, which would leave 450 residents homeless.<\/p>\n
Among the signatories were senior rabbis from synagogues across the UK, but mostly from the Liberal and Reform movements.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Development and Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine has warned that if Israel goes ahead with the demolition of Susiya it will constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to Israel\u2019s outgoing Ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub, a group of rabbis asked the diplomat to \u201cdo what you can<\/em>\u201d to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank village.<\/p>\n The signatories, including senior rabbis from a range of synagogues, said they were writing to the ambassador out \u201cout of deep commitment to Israel and to Judaism<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n They noted in their letter that it was recently Tisha b\u2019av, a religious day marking the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n \u201c[The] injustice of destroying the homes of the villagers of Susiya therefore feels especially poignant<\/em>,\u201d the rabbis said.<\/p>\n In May 2015 Israel\u2019s High Court approved a request by the Israeli Civil Administration \u2014 a military branch responsible for governing the West Bank \u2014 for the demolition of Susiya.<\/p>\n Villagers said they had applied for permission to build permanent structures at the barren site in 2012, but the Civil Administration rejected the plans and issued demolition orders for the whole village.<\/p>\n In their letter to Taub, British rabbis criticized the recent ruling to demolish the makeshift tents and buildings that make up Susiya village because they were erected without a permit.<\/p>\n The court ruling \u201creflects the greater injustice in which 94 percent of all residential building applications are routinely denied to over 150,000 Palestinians<\/em>,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe proposed action in Susiya is not only in itself unjust, but reflects badly on Israel\u2019s image in the eyes of other nations and in the view of much of the Jewish community itself<\/em>,\u201d the rabbis added.<\/p>\n Some 200 Israeli artists, authors and public figures have signed an open letter to the Israeli government in which they describe the proposed demolition of the houses as \u201ccruel, immoral and illegal.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Robert Piper said the case of Susiya was representative of a wider injustice taking place across Palestine.<\/p>\n \u201cSusiya is emblematic of a pattern of injustice that is repeating itself across many parts of the West Bank<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many communities are coming under multiple threats and intimidation \u2014 by legal process, by bulldozer, by settler violence \u2014 to relocate completely or relinquish surrounding agricultural and grazing lands on which their livelihoods depend. The international community cannot stand by and witness these acts in silence<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Piper added that the destruction of private property in an occupied territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law, and called on Israeli authorities to suspend all demolitions of Palestinian structures in Area C \u2014 occupied territory in the West Bank which remains under full Israeli civil and military control \u2014 and to provide its residents with an appropriate planning and permit regime.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood expressed concern about the imminent demolition of Susiya.<\/p>\n \u201cThe UK is deeply concerned by reports that planning for 1,065 settlement units is being advanced, including possible retrospective approval of buildings built without permits or on private Palestinian land<\/em>,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe UK\u2019s position on Israeli settlements is clear: they are illegal under international law and undermine the prospects for a two-state solution.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe call on the Israeli government to discard these plans and refrain from such steps. Every settlement announcement has a negative impact on prospects for peace and a negotiated solution<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n This latest criticism of Israel\u2019s demolition policy coincides with a dance flashmob in London on Sunday, organized to commemorate Palestinian victims in last year\u2019s Gaza war.<\/p>\n A group of protestors performed a dabke dance \u2014 which originates in Palestine and neighboring countries \u2014 in the British Museum and outside a Barclays Bank branch on Tottenham Court Road.<\/p>\n Protest organizer Sharish Desan said the protest was a form of \u201ccultural resistance<\/em>\u201d in which the dabke dance acts as a representation of solidarity, love of life and determination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via\u00a0RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of 30 rabbis has criticized the \u201cunjust\u201d demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank in a letter to Israel\u2019s outgoing ambassador to the UK. The British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights spoke out against the impending destruction of a small Palestinian community in Susiya in the West Bank, which would leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,21,18,1615,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-168889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-human-rights","9":"category-latest-news","10":"category-uk-news","11":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}