Thousands of Palestinian homes threatened with demolition

"Where will we go," asks eight-year-old Tiba Qeren, saying goodbye to the family home that, like those of many other Palestinian citizens of Israel, is condemned to demolition for failing to meet planning rules.

"I'm afraid," she tells AFP. "I know that they are going to destroy our home as they have others in Ramle," the mixed Palestinian and Jewish town where they live, about 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Tel Aviv.

"I'm annoyed because I tell myself: who gives them the right to destroy our house," she says, her young voice shaking with anger.

"The land is not theirs, it belongs to my family and the house is not theirs because it is my family who built it!"

The Ramle community still exists today as rooted from the 160,000 Palestinians who stayed on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.

During the establishment of the state, an estimated 700-800 thousand Palestinians were forcibly removed from their homes or fled, many of whom still live in refugee camps throughout Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Today, those who remained on their land in 1948 and their descendants number over 1.3 million.

While Israeli law guarantees Palestinians the same equality as other citizens, in practice there are claims of discrimination in government funding and a raft of other issues.

Israeli Palestinian rights group Adalah says only 4.6 percent of new homes built in Israel are in Palestinian towns and villages, despite the fact that Palestinians make up over 20 percent of the population.

Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, who number around 580,000, receive four times as many housing units as Palestinian citizens Israel, the group's website says. more

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