Not Knowing What To Expect

24 Dec 2015/ Meta Peace Team, Scott/ Farun

People build a house on their land and then are notified by Israel that it will be demolished.  In some cases they just show up in the middle of the night and demolish it.  Or Israel builds a wall near the town (cutting hundreds of families off from their farms) and then decides that some houses are too close to the wall they built and destroys them.

A few demolished homes

map of home demolition in Farun

I tried to collect the data in the village if Farun, I picked Farun not because the situation us especially bad, but because it was small and easy for me to get to.  It is just an example of life in the West Bank. I thought the village offices would have a complete list.  But I found that the Israeli occupiers do not bother with the legal government, they just go to a home and hand them a demolition order.  The legal government only finds out if the landowner happens ti tell them.

To the best if my knowledge none of these demolitions are collective punishment, some are deemed a security risk (too close t the wall Israel put where they wanted to), some seem to have needed a permit, some don't comply with rules Israel created.  As best I could find out there is no way to tell ahead of time if the house you are building will be demolished. Frequently it seems Israel waits until the house is finished before issuing a demolition order. 

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It is hard to imagine demolishing homes like these

The map has several layer each with a given color pin and a given category of misuse.  All layers may be turned on or off depending on what you want to look at.  In case you can't find the layer side panel:
          red - demolished
          light reddish - demolition orders which have not been carried out yet
          yellow - is denial of use, some times Israel tells a land owner if the stop using a buiding, and don't finish building it or repair it Israel will not demolish it. This saves Israel the bad press of demolitions.
          green - are events like people getting shot which have become part of the culture
          gray - are and marks, these are to help people orientate themselves if they choose to do a self guided tour of Farun.







link to map of house demolitions