In 60% of the Occupied West Bank unbder Israeli administrative control "Natujral Growth" is used by Israel's far right wing government as a pretext to expand illegal settlements, but for Palestinian villages any growth is violently eraced by the IDF's busy Caterpillar bulldozers.
Israel demolishes homes and classroom in West Bank village
This is the village of Dkaika, about as far south in the West Bank as you can get. It's a community of around 300 people, without electricity or running water, whose days are spent tending their herds of goats and sheep and trying not to attract the attention of nearby Jewish settlers.
On Wednesday, at about 7.30am, a convoy of military vehicles and bulldozers arrived to tear down 16 homes, an animal pen, a store and one of the village school's classrooms. All were subject to demolition orders, granted because the structures were built without permission, which is almost impossible for Palestinians to get around here. Dkaika is in Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control, which accounts for 60% of the West Bank.
To illustrate the Apartheid occupation regime at work contrast how whenever Jewish extremists establish a new Illegal Outpost, the government promptly starts supplying the new Outpost with water and electricity. Palestinians on the other hand wouldn't dare ask for water or electricity for their new residences because it would be sure to bring the IDF's bulldozers instead.
Children taught outdoors after bulldozers reduce unauthorised buildings to rubble
At the time there were dozens of children inside the school. The soldiers tried to prevent the its three teachers from entering the building. Sulaima Najadah, 38, who has taught English at the school since last September, told me that he sneaked in to reassure the crying children.
"I was in this class," he said, pointing to the pile of twisted metal and masonry. "The soldiers took us out by force."
The teachers were handcuffed and blindfolded in front of their pupils before the bulldozers moved in. One girl, Mariam Odeh, 13, said she had been afraid the classroom would be demolished over their heads.
Do you think any of those terrified children will ever forget that day? I doubt it.
In case there are any doubts about Israeli intentions, here's Bibi's latest hefty slap to Obama and Hillary:
Israel eyes huge East Jerusalem settlement project
JERUSALEM — Israel is to approve 1,400 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, media and the local council said on Sunday, defying pressure to halt settlement building that has stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.
This is all part of a deliberate strategy to forcefully suppress population growth in Palestinian areas while encouraging and lavishly subsidizing population growth in the Illegal Jewish Settlements. For many years Israel has conducted this type of systematic ethnic cleansing (in slow motion) across 60% of the occupied West Bank under direct Israeli control, that the Israeli powerful Far Right covets for Israel's own territory.