{"id":529579,"date":"2022-02-25T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=387835"},"modified":"2022-02-25T15:00:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T15:00:27","slug":"israel-surpasses-1000-demolitions-in-the-occupied-west-bank-since-joe-biden-took-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/02\/25\/israel-surpasses-1000-demolitions-in-the-occupied-west-bank-since-joe-biden-took-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Surpasses 1,000 Demolitions in the Occupied West Bank Since Joe Biden Took Office"},"content":{"rendered":"
The rate of Israel\u2019s<\/u> destruction of Palestinian-owned properties in the occupied West Bank is accelerating at a rapid pace under U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, according to data<\/a> from the United Nations\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This week, the U.N.\u2019s tally of demolitions carried out since Biden\u2019s inauguration eclipsed 1,000.<\/p>\n In the 13 months since Biden took office, over 1,300 Palestinians, a majority of whom are children, have been displaced by the demolitions tallied by the U.N., which counts each permanent closure or destruction of a residential or commercial property or key piece of infrastructure. At a similar point in President Donald Trump\u2019s tenure, under former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli officials had carried out the demolition of 379 structures that displaced nearly 600 Palestinians \u2014 less than half the toll overseen by Biden and Bennett so far.<\/p>\n According to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian Canadian lawyer and scholar at the Institute for Middle East Understanding, Bennett is ramping up these demolitions as a display of strength in hopes of stamping out any remaining hope that Palestinians might one day achieve self-determination. \u201cBennett\u2019s making it clear that this is where the future [of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship] lies,\u201d she told The Intercept. \u201cThe future lies in the Palestinians being cordoned off into these tiny little ghettos. And all the land surrounding these ghettos will slowly be taken \u2014 be stolen \u2014 for Israeli settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts say the accelerating pace of Israel\u2019s demolitions is a direct result of Biden\u2019s refusal to pressure Bennett over Palestinian rights. The United States has considerable leverage over Israel, they point out, and Biden could wield it to end Israel\u2019s aggressive expansionism \u2014 potentially within the course of a single conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it takes more than for him to pick up the phone and actually threaten [Bennett],\u201d Buttu said. But the well-being of Palestinians has clearly been \u201cput on the back burner\u201d in favor of Biden\u2019s desire to secure a new Iran nuclear deal<\/a> and to project the sense that tensions in the region have calmed since the violence of last summer<\/a>, when Israeli attacks killed nearly 200 Palestinian civilians. Buttu and other Palestinian rights activists say Biden\u2019s reluctance to push Bennett undermines his purported support for a two-state solution and amounts to tacit acceptance of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.<\/p>\n In the 2021<\/u> calendar year, Israeli-enforced demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures surged to 907 \u2014 the second-highest level on record, surpassed only by the 1,094 demolitions that were carried out under President Barack Obama in 2016 while Americans were distracted by an acrimonious presidential election. Over 145 demolitions have already occurred in 2022, putting Biden and Bennett on track for another record. And experts say these figures are likely an undercount, given that some events take time to be reported or are never reported at all.<\/p>\n\u201cThe future lies in the Palestinians being cordoned off into these tiny little ghettos.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n