A childs drawing uprooting Olive trees in Palistine
© SaleemSaleem’s drawing of bulldozers uprooting olive trees
In 2016, Israel has approved the building of about 1,600 illegal housing units.

In the latest episode of Empire Files, Abby Martin takes a closer look at the demolition of Palestinian homes for Israeli settlements, as it has reached a ten-year high in 2016.

While this activity led by the fanatical settler movement is illegal under international law, it is completely aided and abetted by the Israeli government.

The settlements have been ruled illegal because they are being built on Palestinian lands that Israel itself has agreed would be part of a future Palestinian state.


This systematic policy of invasion is such an outrageous violation of human rights that even Israel's closest allies and sponsors like the United States are condemning new settlement construction.


Comment: And yet, the U.S. is still mass funding Israel with cash and weapons, so the "condemnation" falls, as usual, on deaf ears.


Moreover, the construction works are carried out at the expense of the Palestinian population, shortly after their housing is bulldozed. In the past ten years, the Israeli government has demolished over 1,148 homes, displaced over 5,282 people, half of them children.

The eviction and demolition orders are not even handed to Palestinian residents but instead are put on the street, shows the investigation, "sometimes put under a rock when Israeli forces are courteous enough," in a place impossible to find by the owner of the property, explained an activist interviewed by Martin.

When they are lucky enough to find the demolition order before it happens, the owners try to appeal the procedure as many times as necessary in a bid to delay the demolition.