BEIRUT: In 2003, 13,000-16,000 more Palestinians were left homeless and internally displaced because of the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian homes by Israel,
according to a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released yesterday in Beirut. The report, titled Economic and Social repercussions of the Israeli
Occupation on the Living Conditions of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that from December 2002 to December 2003, the Israeli Army demolished 511 homes in the West Bank, of which 77 were shelters for refugees. It added that Israel
partially or completely demolished 858 homes in the Gaza Strip. Twenty-eight thousand Palestinian homes remain under threat demolition. Conducted at the request of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the report was produced in conjunction with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the United Nations Development Program, the World Food Organization and the
World Bank and is due to be presented to the General Assembly in October. "It is important that an impartial body like the United Nations registers the violations of any occupying power, like Israel,
which is a signatory to the Geneva Convention," said Youssef Chaitani, a political affairs officer for ESCWA. "Occupation remains the root cause behind the socio-economic plight of the Palestinian people and the Arab people in the occupied Golan. Suffering has
reached new heights in the last two years." The report looks at the economic and social conditions of Palestinians, detailing the destruction and confiscation of property, restrictions on mobility,
the affect of Israeli settlements and the separation barrier, access to food, health services, education, and humanitarian assistance and the negative effects of the occupation on women. While
curfews in 2003 were less severe than in 2002, the number of checkpoints increased. Since March 2003, 85 new checkpoints were set up, along with 538 different types of trenches and ditches. These
closures and restrictions on mobility have negatively affected the educational system in the Palestinian territories. According to the report, 68 percent of West Bank students reported obstacles in reaching their schools between November 2002 and November 2003. At
least 298 schools closed during the 2002-2003 academic year and Israeli forces destroyed or damaged at least 269 schools. The controversial separation barrier has incorporated 975 square kilometers
of occupied land on the side of Israel - including some of the most fertile land of the West Bank and land home to more than 189,000 Palestinians living in 100 villages and towns. Israel, which
extracts more than 85 percent of its water from Palestinian territory aquifers, will also annex most of the aquifer system, which provides 51 percent of the West Bank's water resources. In the first phase of the barrier construction, Palestinians lost 29 wells with
a total annual yield of 3,880,000 cubic meters. In the occupied Syrian Golan, Israeli authorities have appropriated most of the land for military use and settlements, according to the report, with
the remaining 18,000 indigenous Syrian Arabs controlling only 6 percent of the original territory under occupation. Israelis have prohibited Syrians from developing the agricultural region .
Alongside the report, ESCWA is also hoping to mobilize Arab governments and civil society groups to assist in Palestinian development under occupation through a series of workshops and meetings organized with the Palestinian Authority, the League of Arab States,
alongside various UN organizations, the World Bank, the International Labor Organization and other organizations. |