International criticism against Israeli house demolitions this week in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem continues to intensify. Israel has defended the actions, which were initiated with two very different objectives. The destruction of buildings in the Rafah area along the Israel-Egypt border was conducted by the IDF for security reasons while the demolition of houses in the Shuafat refugee camp north of Jerusalem was enacted by the Jerusalem Municipality due to their illegal construction. Yet both actions were targeted jointly by foreign governments as Israeli moves deserving of condemnation.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that the United States had repeatedly urged Israel to stop demolitions of Palestinian homes, calling such actions "highly provocative.'' The European Union said the action could further complicate "the efforts of the international community and the parties themselves...to end the crisis."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the house demolitions in Rafah, calling them a "crime" and asking for international intervention to stop the Israeli action. Jordan's King Abdullah "condemned the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes by the Israeli authorities and the continuation of building [Jewish] settlements in Palestinian territories," according to an official statement.

Engineering work on the Israel-Egypt border
In a statement released by the IDF Spokesman, the army reported the recent increase in terrorist attacks in the Rafah area, "including the detonation of explosive charges, grenade throwing, the launching of anti-tank grenades and the fire [sic] of small arms at IDF forces on the Israel-Egypt border." The IDF defined its actions as "engineering activities," which necessitated the removal of "a number of abandoned buildings used as cover for those terrorists who laid the bombs, and from which shots were fired upon soldiers traveling along the border."

Three IDF soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a firefight yesterday with Palestinian forces as bulldozers razed more than two dozen structures near Rafah. The army reported that Palestinians threw 22 hand grenades and 2 rifle grenades, and maintained steady gunfire directed at the Israeli soldiers.

The media reported that Israeli bulldozers demolished 26 Palestinian houses, leaving dozens homeless. The IDF insisted that the houses, mostly shacks, had all been abandoned. "These houses were being used by Palestinian gunmen as firing positions and cover to attack our forces," said one IDF officer.

Jerusalem's plague of illegal construction
On Monday Jerusalem Municipality bulldozers razed 14 houses being built in the Shuafat refugee camp in the city's north. Calling the proliferation of illegal construction in East Jerusalem a "plague," Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert defended the municipality's decision to destroy "houses that were being built lawlessly on public lands, pathways and green areas, in clear-cut and total violation of the law."

Protected by several hundred border policemen, and watched by hundreds of Palestinian residents and a group of far-left Israelis and human rights organizers, the bulldozers destroyed the houses, acting on demolition orders issued by Jerusalem city hall the previous day. Homeowners complained of the short notice given, and of their inability to obtain restraining orders before the demolition began.

Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres said on Monday night that he had pressured Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to act against the demolitions, but Sharon's intervention attempts came only after the Jerusalem Municipality had already begun its work.

"This is a crime, I have no other words to describe it," said city councilor Meir Margalit (Meretz). "They have never done anything like this to Jews who build without permission, just to the Arabs. I am ashamed."

Olmert defended the actions, saying that the media never reported the demolition of illegally constructed Jewish buildings. "Just lack week we destroyed an illegal structure in the Har Nof neighborhood that served as a synagogue. Why wasn't there media coverage for that?" Olmert asked.

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