Dr. Susan Power:

I have some experience of coming into contact with people who have just suffered from having their house demolished. I recall approximately two years ago we visited a family whose home had been demolished an hour earlier. It is like entering a removal or a funeral. The house is completely destroyed. There are bits of clothing, smashed furniture and children's toys. I remember profoundly seeing all the chairs lined out, like one would see at a removal, and neighbours coming up and shaking the family's hand. There was such a palpable sense of grief and sadness at what was taking place, and of hopelessness.

We have had field researchers working in Jerusalem who have left because there are so many house demolitions and there is nothing we can offer. All we can do is keep documenting and asking the international community to do something. The families are pushed out of their area and usually end up staying with relatives. They are displaced further and further. The whole point is to displace people so everyone is confined within bantustans and pockets of territory. We are seeing that unfold in front of our eyes and it is an ugly truth. It is all part of the ongoing apartheid. There is very little people can do.

In some of the communities in the Jordan Valley, such as Humsa al-Fawqa, international aid has been received and Ireland has donated aid. Even those shelters and homes have been demolished again. There are continuous demolitions in areas that Israel is eager to rapidly colonise and settle. We have people who are doubly displaced and sometimes have been displaced a number of times and are living in precarious situations. It destroys families and the ethos of the family. Often, the family is displaced between numerous relatives and the family unit is broken up into different households as different relatives offer shelter. There is a deep hole ripped in the fabric of Palestinian society by these house demolitions.

There has been some discussion on the vaccine. Israel is the occupying power and has obligations under the Geneva Conventions to supply vaccines to the occupied territory. We saw Israel straight away reneging on its obligations as occupying power. The Geneva Conventions include provisions specifically providing for pandemics. There are very clear obligations. Israel refused and denied the vaccine to the protected Palestinian population under its effective control and administration. In the end, it vaccinated some Palestinian workers who were travelling into the territory but it never fulfilled its obligations to the Palestinian population and continues to renege on its obligations to provide the vaccine.