Jordan Valley residents challenge Area C restrictions
Reageer (0)21-2-2010
Bethlehem – In defiance of Israeli restrictions, residents mended roads today in the village of Jiftlik, in the Jordan Valley.
The villagers were objecting to Israeli building and planning rules that prevent construction and infrastructure improvements in most of Israeli-controlled Area C, which composes sixty percent of the West Bank.
According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, the residents were joined by the Palestinian Minister of Agriculture, Ismail Deiq. They repaired roughly one kilometer of roads inside the town.
Jiftlik, the largest town in the Jordan Valley is home to some 5,000 people and is located entirely in Area C, which under the Oslo peace agreements, remains under full Israeli military control until a final peace agreement is negotiated.
Under the Oslo accords the entire Jordan Valley was classified as Area C with the exception of the city of Jericho.
According to a United Nations report released in December, a complex, highly restrictive Israeli planning regime makes Palestinian construction effectively impossible in about 70% of all of Area C, or about 44% of the West Bank.
The report, released by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also stated that in 2009 alone, Israel demolished 180 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C, leaving 319 people without homes.
The buildings were all razed on the grounds that they lacked permits from the Civil Administration, the arm of the Israeli military that rules civilian life in much of the West Bank.
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