More than 40 percent of the Palestinians living in the center of the West Bank city of Hebron, which is under Israeli control, have been forced to leave their homes, and more than 75 percent of their shops have shut down, according to a survey released yesterday by two Israeli human rights groups.
B'Tselem and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the exit of Palestinians from the center of Hebron resulted from Israel's policy of separation between Jews and Arabs and hardships imposed on the local Palestinian population.
Hebron is believed by Jews and Muslims to be the site where biblical patriarchs were buried and is a frequent flashpoint. Israel controls the center, where about 500 settlers live in heavily-guarded enclaves among about 160,000 Palestinians. The Palestinians control the rest of the city.
The survey showed that at least 1,014 Palestinian housing units, which account for 41.9 percent of those in the area, are empty. Of these, 65 percent were vacated since 2000, during the course of the second Palestinian uprising.
B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli said the Palestinians were essentially forced to move because the army imposed strict limitations on their movement and livelihoods. She said by giving preference to the needs of the settlers and creating a separation based on ethnicity, the army has created a "ghost town" in central Hebron.
"They created conditions that made the Palestinians move," Michaeli said. "The army can't now say that they didn't know this was going to happen."
A military statement said the B'Tselem report failed to reflect the complexities of Hebron, the only West Bank city where Israelis and Palestinians live next to each other and where there are constant stabbing, shooting and fire-bombing attacks by militants on the Israelis, whose presence there is guaranteed by the Israeli government.
It said that restrictions imposed there were meant to maintain order and to protect life, for the benefit of both the Israelis and Palestinians in the city.
"In this complicated reality the military commander is required, and in fact obliged, to take such actions on purely security grounds," the statement said.
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