The bulldozers came at school

Dozens of schools in the occupied West Bank threatens to demolish. According to Israeli authorities, they were illegally built. The EU, which has financed many schools, considers this to be a violation of international law.

Only a large pile of rubble is left. This is leaning onto a corrugated iron that is sprayed on in large letters: “That was a school.” The 22 Palestinian primary school children now learn in a tent. Its thin walls offer little protection against wind and rain on the rugged hills in southern West Bank. “They came with bulldozers and destroyed the school, we climbed out of the windows,” says nine -year -old Deana. That was on November 23 when the Israeli military torn down the school. The one-story building was only built at the beginning of the month, with funds from the EU and by EU member states.

More than 50 schools threatened to demolish other schools are to be demolished there. They too were financed by the European Union and EU member states. In total, there are more than 50 schools in Eastern Jerusalem and the areas in the West Bank controlled by Israel. The Israeli authorities argue that they were illegally built without a building permit. EU criticizes Israel “they are not illegal under international law,” replies Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, representative of the EU in the Palestinian areas. These schools are the institutions that the population needs to live here. The EU accuses Israel of violating international law with the destruction of schools and buildings. Because around 60 percent of the areas occupied by Israel in the West Bank are under full Israeli control.

The occupying power, i.e. Israel, is responsible for the well-being of the population, explains the EU representative. Because Israel does not fulfill its obligations and only approves less than one percent of the building applications of Palestinians for schools and other institutions, the international community must accept this obligation and build schools, for example. Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff paints on a wall together with Palestinian children during the visit to a desalination facility in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza strip. Ultrar rights are calling for more demolitions and the EU’s settlement building demands that Israel stop the demolition. With the new right government in Israel, however, the opposite will happen.

“This is our country,” says Jehonadav Weinberger, who lives in the Israeli settlement of Carmel in the south of the West Bank, a few kilometers from the recently demolished school. He expects that the next government will probably “exercise law and order and stop illegal buildings” . At the same time, the government should give Jews more land to settle, even in the controversial areas. This wishes could fulfill the likely new government. Benjamin Netanyahus Ultrarechte Desire Partners want to act strictly against Palestinian buildings without building permit in the West Bank and at the same time approved more settlements for Israeli settlers. And Netanyahu is dependent on her to form a government. The schoolchildren in Masafer Yatta do not know how long her provisional tent school will be.

“Even if you tear it off, we stay in our country and build it up again,” says nine -year -old Deana. At this point, she does not yet know that a few days later, Israeli soldiers would move again. In the meantime, the tent school has also been torn down. Chairs, tables and the toilet are confiscated. The children are already used to it – after all, the conflict is part of their everyday life. EU criticizes Israel “they are not illegal under international law,” replies Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, representative of the EU in the Palestinian areas. These schools are the institutions that the population needs to live here. The EU accuses Israel of violating international law with the destruction of schools and buildings. Because around 60 percent of the areas occupied by Israel in the West Bank are under full Israeli control. The occupying power, i.e. Israel, is responsible for the well-being of the population, explains the EU representative.

Fire in a petrochemical plant in Haifa

A suspected malfunction caused a fire this Tuesday, December 6, in an electrical transformer at the Carmel Olefins petrochemical plant in the city of Haifa, in the northwestern part of the occupied Palestinian territories. According to reports, fire and rescue teams were called to the Bezan complex on Tuesday morning after receiving calls about smoke rising from the area of the Carmel Olefins factory in Haifa. Numerous forces from the Kiryot and Haifa stations were dispatched to the scene and joined the factory’s emergency team, which worked to extinguish the transformer with fire extinguishers. No casualties were reported.

Carmel Olefins is the only Israeli manufacturer of petrochemicals used as raw materials for the plastics industry. Various Israeli areas, in recent months, have been subject to numerous cases of fire, hacking of infrastructure systems, including urban and transportation systems, electricity and telecommunications, and military and security facilities. In recent years, technical defects and ongoing disruptions in the Haifa refinery’s processing system have led experts to warn of the appearance of symptoms of incurable diseases among residents of Haifa’s industrial zone, in addition to environmental risks. The recent release of photos of thick red smoke coming from the refinery’s main chimney led the city council and fire department to ask residents in the area to close their doors and windows and avoid unnecessary traffic in the city.

At the same time, some Israeli media reported the launch of protest campaigns by Haifa residents to protest the indifference of Haifa’s industrial area officials to the continued operation of the refinery in the city. With the arrival of the cold season and the onset of the air inversion phenomenon, it is expected that the amount of air pollution in the Haifa Bay industrial zone will increase. Indeed, Israel has made great efforts to transform Haifa Bay into a new tourist hub, but with the increase in environmental pollution and the significant decrease in foreign tourist travel to the area, the Israeli media now refers to it as the “Bay of the Dead.”