Israel's Civil Administration began demolishing over 20 farmer's sheds in the Al-Farisiya area in the northern Jordan Valley on Monday morning, officials said.
Director of the Save the Jordan Valley campaign Fathi Khdeirat described the demolitions as an "Israeli policy of collective displacement, aimed at expanding settlement outposts in the northern Jordan Valley."
Khdeirat added that in addition to the sheds, homes and barracks were also razed in the process. Onlookers said they believed the recent increase in demolitions across the Jordan Valley were aimed at changing the area's demographic map "to serve its settlement project."
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said the structures razed on Monday were abandoned tents in a fire danger zone. Owners were issued the order on 27 June, he said, but did not appeal the decision. The official said the area was evacuated because of fire risks.
The Al-Farisiya area is zoned under Area C, which falls under full Israeli security, planning, and construction control. The UN has reported an increase in demolitions across Area C, which encompasses 60 percent of the West Bank.
In early July, Israeli authorities demolished Palestinian homes in the Ras Al-Ahmar area, near the northern Jordan Valley district, which residents say remain ongoing.
A month earlier, settlers established an illegal outpost in the area following which military guards told locals that they would no longer be permitted to get drinking water from a well nearby the outpost. "We were told to get water from the other villages and collect it in tanks," village representative Abdallah Bisharat said.
Meanwhile, in the nearby Bardala village, locals said the Civil Administration distributed several stop-work orders to residents on Sunday evening. The Civil Administration spokesman said he would look into that report.
The orders, known locally as "demolition orders," demand that homeowners appear before a magistrates court to defend allegations. Because legal action at the court rarely succeeds, the stop-work orders essentially constitute a demolition order.
According to a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz, the Civil Administration has received government orders to increase enforcement against Palestinian construction in Area C, according to a deposition by an administration official to the High Court.
The deposition, by the head of the administration's infrastructure authority, Colonel Zvika Cohen, came in response to a petition by Regavim - a group seeking the destruction of illegal Palestinian construction at six West Bank sites, citing a security threat, the daily reported.
Haaretz reported that "The response suggests that while the government does not intend to raze any illegal construction in one village, Al-Bireh, because it is not a priority, it does intend to destroy Palestinian homes." At the end of deliberations, the justices ordered the state to provide additional information and called its response inadequate.
In response, Israel told the court that "The Defense Ministry has given instructions to step up enforcement against illegally built Palestinian structures, giving priority to structures that pose a security threat," the daily reported.
A December 2009 report issued by the UN's Office for Humanitarian and Coordination Affairs said that "in almost the entirety of the Jordan Valley, Palestinian construction is prohibited."
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions said Wednesday that the Israeli government has “returned with a vengeance” to its policy of demolishing Palestinian homes.
Following the ratification of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the newly-established Palestinian Authority in 1994, the West Bank was divided into three areas falling either under full PA control, joint PA-Israeli control, or full Israeli control.
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