JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian faculty within the occupied West Bank on Sunday, drawing harsh condemnation from the European Union.
COGAT, a department of the Israeli army, mentioned in an announcement that the constructing, positioned about 2 km from Bethlehem, had been constructed illegally and “was found to be dangerous to the safety of anyone studying or otherwise visiting there,” and thus an Israeli court docket “had ordered it demolished.”
The European Union Delegation to the Palestinians, on its official Twitter account, mentioned it was “appalled” by the college’s demolition, which it mentioned would have an effect on 60 Palestinian youngsters. The demolition was “illegal under international law” and would “only increase the suffering of the Palestinian population and further escalate an already tense environment,” the EU delegation mentioned.
COGAT mentioned the constructing’s proprietor had refused a number of makes an attempt by Israeli authorities to have interaction in dialogue over the standing of the construction earlier than the enforcement of the demolition.
Students and witnesses mentioned the constructing had been delivered to rubble with no hint of the college that after stood there.
“We got ready to come to school and when we arrived we didn’t find the school,” scholar Mohammed Ibrahim advised Reuters. “We want a school today! We want to study, if they [Israeli forces] will keep demolishing, we will keep building.”
Witnesses additionally mentioned the contents of the constructing had been confiscated.
“They demolished the school and they took everything with them,” a close-by resident and witness whose grandson was a scholar on the faculty Ismael Salah advised Reuters. “All the furniture, they put them in trucks and took them.”
Israel has typically cited an absence of constructing permits, which Palestinians and rights teams say are almost unimaginable to acquire, in destroying Palestinian buildings within the West Bank, an space it captured within the 1967 Middle East warfare.
The Palestinians need the greater than half one million Jewish settlers there, together with Israeli troopers, to go away the occupied territories. Israel balks at such sweeping pullouts, citing historic claims on the biblical lands.
The Gush Etzion Regional Council, which represents a close-by block of Jewish settlers within the West Bank, welcomed the demolition.
“This is definitely another step in the persistent struggle for our State lands, Gush Etzion Regional Council Mayor, and Chairman of the Yesha Council, Shlomo Neeman said in a statement. “There remains to be a variety of work to be carried out.”
The Palestinian Authority’s ministry of education called the demolition a “heinous crime” and said it would cause “the college’s college students to be disadvantaged of receiving their training in a free, protected and secure method, much like youngsters in the remainder of the world.”
An Israeli official supply advised Reuters that the dispute over the constructing’s security had gone on for six years and {that a} close by faculty would soak up the scholars displaced by the demolition. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
