Israeli Knesset approves accelerating demolition of Arab homes

The Israeli Knesset approved on Wednesday a new bill that facilitates measures leading to the demolition and removal of Arab homes in Israel, Palestinian website Arab48.com reported.

The new law targets Arab homes which were built without licenses. The new law will speed up the judicial and administrative measures that are normally taken prior to the demolition of these unlicensed homes.

Deputy Attorney General Erez Kamitz said that Israeli planning officials claim there are 50,000 buildings built without permits in Arab communities.

Read: Israeli plan aims to accelerate demolition of Arab homes

However, Arab activists and NGOs in Israel said that it is almost impossible to receive a building permit for Arabs to build homes due to Israeli discrimination against Arabs, leading to claims that Israel intends to dispossess Arabs of any potential land ownership.

An example of this is that only 188 of the 3,238 building permits issued in Jerusalem in 2015 were given to Palestinian residents.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz has previously reported that the Israeli courts deal with more than 700 stop-work and demolition orders every year, noting that 160 buildings are demolished each year.