EU condemns demolition of West Bank Palestinian school funded by European bloc
Palestinian rights group protests Israel Police failure to visit site and take evidence on yet-unknown vandals, says not enough being done to stop violence by extremist settlers
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The European Union has condemned the destruction by unknown parties of an EU-funded Palestinian school in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills region earlier this month, as well as what it said was the increase in violence by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians.
The school, located in the village of Zanuta, was destroyed sometime between November 29 and December 4, following the abandonment of the dwelling by its residents at the end of October due to violence and harassment by local extremist settlers.
In a statement to The Times of Israel, the EU condemned the incident and called on Israel to bring an end to such attacks and enforce the law against those committing them.
Villagers who visited Zanuta on November 29 to see if they might be able to return were threatened by settlers who warned them at the time not to come back to the village.
The school was intact that day, but when activists returned to the village Monday, it and 10 other buildings, including a local council building also funded by the EU, were in ruins, with Stars of David spray-painted on the remains of the school.
The Civil Administration department of the Defense Ministry, which is responsible for the demolition of illegal structures in the West Bank, said it had not carried out any demolitions in the area during those dates.
The police were not immediately able to state on Sunday whether an investigation has been opened into the incident, although a complaint has been filed by residents of the village. A letter was also sent directly to the police by legal representatives of Zanuta on the day the demolitions were discovered.
“The EU strongly condemns the demolition on Monday 4 December of an EU-funded school and of approximately 10 housing units in the village of Khirbet Zanuta, in the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank,” said Peter Stano, the lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy of the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU which helped fund the school.
“The European Union is deeply concerned by the increase of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank by extremist settlers, and urges Israel to take action to prevent this violence and ensure accountability,” added Stano.
In a letter sent to Israel’s Hebron district police and the IDF’s West Bank legal department on December 14, Palestinian human rights group Haqel, which represents the residents of Zanuta, said the failure to take measures to protect the residents of the village and their property had led to the unlawful demolitions that took place in the dwelling as part of an effort to “leave the residents without any property to return to and as a warning for them not to even try and return.”
The letter sent by Haqel also protested the police’s failure to visit the site of the demolitions, noting that the organization had sent a letter to the police on the day the destruction was discovered, informing them of the incident and providing them with video and photo documentation, including of the Stars of David spraypainted at the school.
“The Israel Police refused to go to the site and instead invited my client to go to the police while the evidence faded away and the chances of identifying the suspects declined,” the organization wrote.
There have been reports of widespread and serious violence committed by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli security and civilian control, since the Hamas atrocities perpetrated on October 7.
The left-wing Yesh Din organization has recorded over 240 such incidents of violence and harassment in over 93 communities in the West Bank since October 7.
The violence has led over 1,000 Palestinians in the region, particularly in rural herding communities, to abandon their homes, including the residents of Zanuta.
In November, the Israel Hayom daily reported on police statistics that, contrary to Yesh Din’s claims, showed a 50-percent decline in nationalistic crimes committed by Israelis in the West Bank since October 7.
But last week, the Ynet news website reported that figures on Israeli violence against Palestinians had been presented to senior political officials that demonstrated that although such attacks were only a little higher in 2023 than 2022, the number of arrests had halved.
