The Israeli army destroyed Monday a transport network established in a West Bank village with financial support of the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) of electricity, reveals Oxfam International said in a statement Thursday. This is the first time Israel destroyed a Belgian project, said the NGO, who urged the Belgian government to publicly condemn Israels actions and to demand compensation for this destruction. The damage is estimated at 55,000 euros. The Israeli ambassador in Brussels was also convened in the afternoon to the office of foreign minister in current affairs, Didier Reynders. Monday morning, Israeli bulldozers knocked down 70 power poles and destroyed 4.5 kilometers of electric cables electricity network built at Khirbet al-Tawil transportation, a village of the group in Nablus, West Bank, through the Financial assistance provided by BTC. The posts were then cut into pieces to prevent them from being reused. Entire village is without electricity since then, said the head of the village of Khirbet al-Tawil, Bassam Akher, said in the statement of Oxfam solidarity. Wednesday morning, the villagers tried to rebuild the infrastructure, but the Israeli army, back on the scene, stopped the attempt, says Oxfam-Solidarity. If we look at the period between early January and late August of this year, and compare it with the same period in 2013, we note that 10% of additional people were left homeless because of demolitions. This is 823 people, including 448 children. Belgian Another project, the playground of a kindergarten in the village of Al-Aqaba, is also threatened with destruction, the statement added. According to the NGO, the various parliamentary questions show a lack of real policy on the part of Belgium in response to the destruction of the projects. She therefore called on Thursday on Twitter in particular, the government to publicly condemn the demolitions and demanding compensation to Israel for the damage. The Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders, responded Thursday morning, stating that Belgium condemns this destruction, contrary to international law and seeks compensation. We had already taken a number of initiatives with the Israeli authorities to prevent the destruction of long-planned project developed in collaboration with those same authorities. Israel must accept that people can live in decent conditions. A procedure will also underway in Europe for how to respond together to face such destruction, said the minister, and bring this issue in discussions between the EU and Israel. Finally, the Israeli ambassador was summoned to Brussels Thursday to firm Didier Reynders. We want to understand the reason for this gesture and inform him of our conviction, our desire for coordination at European level and the claim, said Reynders. The Belgian ambassador in Tel Aviv also reacted on the spot. This act prefigured, according to Didier Reynders, the discussions held at the conference in Cairo on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, on October 12. It is indeed necessary minimum guarantees concerning the facilities about to be built or rebuilt, concluded the head of the Belgian diplomacy.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:58:33 +0000