Executive summary
Since 2005, internal displacement in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories has largely been the result of house
demolitions and land confiscation by the government of Israel in connection
with the construction of the West Bank Wall. While displacement is ongoing,
the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Territories has gravely deteriorated
following sanctions taken by the Government of Israel and major donors
against the new Palestinian Government.
Since Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli government has ordered the demolition of thousands of homes in the Territories and has confiscated land, for example in East Jerusalem. According to the Israeli government, these measures have been taken for security and administrative reasons and to deter or prevent militants from suicide-bombings and other terrorist attacks on Israel. According to many international organisations and UN human rights bodies, however, Israel's policy of house demolitions and land confiscation in the Occupied Territories violates international humanitarian and human rights law, including protection against arbitrary displacement.
There are no reliable figures on the number of people displaced in this way, but estimates run into the tens of thousands over the past few decades. Whereas house demolitions in the course of military incursions or so-called "clearing operations" constituted the primary source of internal displacement in 2003 and 2004 in the Occupied Territories, the construction of the West Bank Wall and its associated regime have now become the major cause of forced displacement.
In 2002, Israel started the construction of a Wall in the West Bank designed to physically separate Israel and Israeli settlements from the Occupied Territories and to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinian militant attacks. Largely built on Palestinian confiscated land in order to incorporate Israeli settlements on its Israeli side, this 670 kilometre-long Wall has led to extensive expropriation and destruction of property, which has been the most direct cause of displacement. The Wall and the associated Israeli security measures also provoke internal displacement by rendering the life of Palestinians residing in its vicinity increasingly intolerable. Residents often find themselves cut off from their jobs, health facilities, schools, lands and family members. The Wall causes severe hardships for Palestinians living in the Jerusalem area since it practically seals off the city from the rest of the West Bank, leading to the economic decline of entire communities. It also exposes thousands of Palestinians to the loss of their residency rights in Jerusalem.
There are no comprehensive statistics or assessments on actual or potential displacement as a result of the construction of the Wall. The most comprehensive study - by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics - estimates that nearly 14,500 persons had been displaced in the 145 localities through which the Wall had already passed by May 2005. B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, has estimated that the Wall threatens to displace some 90,000 Palestinians. Displacement is ongoing and substantial displacements may be expected in the coming years. Construction continues despite the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion, issued in July 2004, which found that the Wall and its associ ated regime violate international humanitarian and human rights laws and demanded the immediate dismantling of the Wall in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem.
Despite a relative easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement during the first half of 2005, the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Territories continued to deteriorate. Recent Israeli and international sanctions imposed on the new Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority plunged the Territories into a serious economic and humanitarian crisis. UN agencies warn that the Authority may collapse, with disastrous potential consequences for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the stability of the region.
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