![The Supreme Court decision to give a green light to the demolitions of buildings in areas under PA jurisdiction has raised questions [File: Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2016/12/25/a541d4aa3f85401db3689f77bbbc375a_18.jpg)
Critics question merit of engaging with Supreme Court after it allows demolition of buildings under Palestinian control.
By Ben White | Al Jazeera | Jul 17, 2019
…it is the court’s intervention – or lack of it – in Israel’s discriminatory planning system and associated demolition of Palestinian homes which has perhaps been most under the spotlight of late..
The demolition of Palestinian-owned buildings by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is a routine occurrence.
But in Sur Baher, a neighbourhood southeast of Jerusalem, an unprecedented mass demolition is looming – with the approval of Israel’s top court.
Ten inhabited and under-construction buildings, containing dozens of apartments, are marked for destruction, after falling foul of a 2011 Israeli military order prohibiting construction within a 100-300-metre buffer zone of the separation wall.
While most of Sur Baher lies within Israel’s unilaterally-annexed East Jerusalem municipal boundary, part of the community’s land lies in the West Bank – land that has nevertheless ended up on the “Israeli” side of the internationally-condemned wall that has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice.
Last month, Israel’s Supreme Court gave the green light for the demolition in Sur Baher – even though the buildings in question were built on land designated under the civilian control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), from whom construction permits were duly obtained.
HolyLandJustice.org 