Palestinian National Council: West Bank home demolitions part of 'creeping annexation' plan

Palestinian National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh said that the campaign by the far-right Israeli government targeting Palestinian homes and structures in villages and towns across the occupied West Bank is part of a comprehensive colonial project aimed at creeping annexation, forced displacement, and the removal of the land’s original inhabitants, alongside settler crimes and violations by the Israeli military.

In a statement, Fattouh added that the large-scale demolitions carried out by Israeli forces over the past three days in Arraba, Anza, Al-Deirat, Irfaiya, Sa'ir, Ni'lin, Shuqba, Nahalin, Tuqu', Sur Baher, Silwan, Jit, and the Bedouin community west of Asira al-Qibliya, which resulted in dozens of Palestinian families being displaced and the destruction of homes, structures, and livelihoods, demonstrate that Israel is implementing a systematic policy of demographic cleansing. This policy, he said, aims to alter the geographic and demographic reality and impose new colonial facts on the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian National Council chief stressed that Israel’s justification for demolitions under the pretext of “building without permits” is legally baseless, as the occupying power has no legitimate authority to deny the occupied population their right to housing and construction, while simultaneously expanding illegal settlements and seizing land.

He also noted that these policies constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, UN Security Council resolutions, and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which affirmed the illegality of the occupation and settlements and the need to end them.

Fattouh emphasized that these actions are no longer isolated violations but represent a state policy of collective punishment, forced uprooting, and ethnic cleansing, aimed at breaking Palestinian resilience and emptying Palestinian areas—especially those classified as “Area C”—to enable colonial expansion and de facto annexation.

He said the Israeli state systematically enforces an apartheid regime through a network of discriminatory laws, procedures, and policies targeting Palestinians on the basis of national identity, including land confiscation, home demolitions, forced displacement, colonial expansion, and restrictions on movement, housing, and development.

Fattouh added that, under international law, these policies constitute crimes that require accountability and an end to the impunity that has encouraged Israeli authorities to continue their grave violations against the Palestinian people. He stressed that ongoing impunity emboldens Israel to pursue its colonial project and undermines any chance for a just peace based on ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.