18 Jan 2019; MEMO: A school that was in the middle of construction in the town of Yatta located in the south Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank has been destroyed by Israeli soldiers, reported the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The foundations of what would have been an elementary school was built between Yatta and Bani Naim, in an area close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beni Hefer.
The demolition came just one week after Defence Minister Naftali Bennett declared that he was embarking on a battle for Area C of the West Bank to ensure that it remains in Israeli hands.
The school was intended to serve children in the remote villages who often have to travel long distances and through rough and hazardous terrain to reach their schools in nearby towns.
Representative of the Anti-Settlement Committee in the West Bank Rateb Jabour told Wafa that no prior notice of demolition was given to the school administration in a bid to impede Palestinian children’s education.
This is not the first school to be demolished by occupation forces in Hebron. A similar school near Al-Dahriya town south of occupied Hebron was demolished last year.
Naomi Linder Kahn, the representative of the right-wing settler group Regavim which campaigns for the demolition of Palestinian villages, said: “What is new – and is very welcome and long overdue – is the fact that the Civil Administration has begun to take the strategic threat posed by these illegal PA outposts [Birin] seriously.”
“The Civil Administration exercised its authority to demolish new structures – and stood up, at last, to the EU’s brazen meddling and unabashed support for illegal construction. We hope this new resolve will gain momentum, and turn the tide back on the PA’s hostile takeover of Area C.”
The town of Yatta, which exists in complete and utter isolation from the rest of the occupied West Bank, is located in Area C, which constitutes the larger territorial chunk, about 60 per cent, of the West Bank.
Over the years, villagers have also lost access to large parts of their agricultural land as a nearby Israeli settlement expanded.
