On 8 November 2009 Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center – Mosaada and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD) wrote a letter to Mr. Ehud Barak the Israeli Defense Minister, Mr. Meni Mazuz Israel's Attorney General and to Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai (Poly) the Head of the Civil Administration in the West Bank. In the letter it is requested that the government of Israel rectify planning failures in the West Bank, otherwise a petition will be submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice. These planning failures have compelled Palestinians to build without permits, which in turn led to a systematic and massive demolition of homes and other buildings in Area C of the West Bank. These demolitions constitute a violation of local, administrative and international humanitarian and human rights laws. In their letter, these three organizations requested that all the demolitions in Area C stop until they receive an answer.

The following are the main issues addressed in the letter to the Government:

Based on Civil Administration data cited in Bimkom’s June 2008 report, The Prohibited Zone – Israeli Planning Policy in the Palestinian Villages in Area C, between the years 2000 and 2007, an average of 714 demolition orders were issued per year for houses and other buildings belonging to Palestinians in Area C. In that same seven year period, 1,626 buildings were demolished in Area C, amounting to an average of 240 buildings a year. Over those seven years, an average of 241 requests was submitted for building permits each year by Palestinian residents of area C. On average, just 13 of those requests per year were granted, coming out to a mere 5.6% success rate of all requests.

The planning policy of the Civil Administration is two-headed: The British Mandate regional plans (hereinafter – Mandatory Plans) on the one hand, and the Special Partial Outline Plans (hereinafter – Special Plans) on the other hand. In the West Bank building permits are issued on the basis of regional zoning plans from the period of the British Mandate. Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, two of the regional plans, RJ5 for Jerusalem area and S15 for Samaria area cover most of the area of the West Bank. At least 140 villages in Area C have no outline or detailed plans and are subject to the Mandatory Plans.   

From the late 1980s until the Oslo Agreements in 1995, the Civil Administration’s planning authorities approved around 400 new Special for the Palestinian villages in the West Bank. This type of plan does not appear in the Jordanian planning law which applies in Area C. Most of the villages for which the Civil Administration approved a new set of plans are today within the area of the Palestinian Authority (A and B). This pastyear, the Civil Administration started new Special Plans for a limited number of villages in Area C.

 The planning failures

On the one hand, the planning failures in Area C, in which the Special Plans do not apply, reinforces the archaic Mandatory Plans, that for many years have failed, as also recognized by the Civil Administration itself, to provide for the Palestinian population's developing needs. On the other hand, the Civil Administration does not allow the Palestinians in area C to exhaust the planning potential the Mandatory Plans do grant them. It freezes building permits using stringent and incorrect interpretation and systematically avoids acting upon its legally granted discretion or use of its authority to ease the process. 

The Civil Administration’s presentation of the Mandatory Plans as adequate is deceptive approach. De-facto it has lead to massive demolitions of Palestinian homes while having no chance to get a building permit under the Mandatory plans in the first place. Contrarily, the solution proposed by the Civil Administration – the Special Plans - does not solve the planning and housing deficits in area C, and paradoxically only leads to more house demolitions.

The existing planning policy constitutes an extreme deviation from reasonableness and amounts to an illegal administrative action according to the local Jordanian law, public Israeli law, humanitarian and human rights laws. The systematic demolition of Palestinian houses in area C is the outcome of violation of the planning rights granted by local planning laws and the Mandatory Plans.  It is also a grave, disproportionate and unjustifiable violation of basic human rights for housing, development, basic living conditions, due process, property, family, health, education, children and women’s rights.

Additionally the Civil Administration discriminates against the Palestinian residents in comparison to the settlerswith regards to detailed planning; engaging and consulting with the local community which adjusts the planning to its needs; as well as in enforcing the planning laws. The very existence of settlements harms the development of planning of the neighboring Palestinian villages.

The current planning policy violates the Hague Regulations of 1907, which state that the occupying poweris obligated to ensure the public order in the occupied territory. This includes the planning of villages and cities for the benefit of the local community. The domain of planning and construction is civil in its essence, and falls under the responsibility of the military commander in the West Bank. A planning policy securing the public order must include the obligation to initiate planning for villages that have no detailed plans.

It must also include the obligation to update and adapt existing plans for the benefit of the occupying army or the local community to ensure that they take into consideration the local community’s needs given relevant demographic, social, geographic, and political circumstances.

In these two aspects the Civil Administration has failed- it does not initiate plans for all tens of villages in area C that require detailed plans, nor does it update the Mandatory Plans or the Special Plans it has approved in the past. The interpretation that the Civil Administration has chosen to adopt regarding the Mandatory Plans achieves the opposite: it guarantees public chaos in the domain of planning and construction in area C, as exists today.

The planning policy does not constitute adequate management of the occupied territory, and does not use tools of planning that meet accepted standards. As such it significantly harms the communities' needs and prevents natural and reasonable development. The planning failures maintain social chaos that creates injustice for the civil population, and planning stagnation in much of area C as pertaining to Palestinians.

The existing planning policy does not allow the Civil Administration to carry out its obligations according to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 (hereinafter – the Fourth Geneva Convention) pertaining to family life, human dignity and the benefits of protected persons and their property.

As a result of the massive demolitions of villages' houses, their residents are forced to leave their lands. In doing so the Civil Administration violates its duty not to force people to evacuate their places when it is not justified by military necessity. The demolition itself is also a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations and may be considered a war crime according to article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

The fact that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is a long term occupation has a direct legal implication on the planning concept in an occupied territory: the wellbeing of the local population requires consultation with the residents themselves since the planning of the area will influence them for many years; it requires allowing, or at least not preventing, the realization of the potential natural development of the occupied population; and it requires a more active planning approach than basically maintaining the existing planning situation. It also calls for a more rigorous protection of basic human rights that pertain to the realm of planning and construction, such as the right to due process and proper administration, the right to minimal standard of living conditions, the right for housing, private property and development.

 The Defense Minister, Israel's Attorney General and the Head of the Civil Administration were requested:

·         To prepare an updated planning survey of area C. The survey will be the basis for detailed planning of area C where Mandatory Plans still apply, and the re-design of an appropriate planning policy.

·         To publicize immediately the mapping of area C, done by the Civil Administration, which includes the names of all the villages.

·         To publicize immediately the full and detailed list of the criteria according to which planning initiatives are determined by the Civil Administration for specific villages in area C.

·         To decide on a clear planning policy for the villages and houses in area C that are currently and will remain in the short and long-term under the regime of the Mandatory Plans. The goal of this policy will eventually be to promote an initiated and detailed planning by the Civil Administration or at least not to demolish houses and buildings within the villages' boundaries.

·         To stop using the Special Plans and to use instead detailed plans as required by the Jordanian Planning law prepared with the cooperation of and in consultation with the local population. Those plans will be done by tender-chosen local or other planners as agreed by the relevant local population. Alternatively, to change the policy of determination of the borders of the Special Plans in consultation with and the cooperation of the local population so that a reasonable amount of land is included for future planning.

·         To issue internal guidelines regarding the current policies of interpretation and specific matters within the discretion of the planning authorities in the Civil Administration as relates to the application of the Mandatory Plans.

Adv. Netta Amar-Shiff – Legal Adviser, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) tel: 052-8945228, or Adv. Sliman Shahin, Jerusalem Legal Aid Center - Mosaada,  tel: 054-6468244, or Adv. Quamar Mishirqi-Asaad, Director of the Legal Department, RHR: 050-8283106, or Adv. Moein Udeh, RHR: 050-2025997.