The United Nations special rapporteurs on the rights to housing, food, and drinking water said in a statement, "These actions by the Israeli authorities violate human rights and humanitarian law and must end immediately,"
"The impact and discriminatory nature of these demolitions and evictions is completely unacceptable," they said.
"In some places, there are nearly weekly burnings of Palestinian villagers' land, trees and crops by Israeli settlers," the three rapporteurs said.
Since January 2011, at least 387 structures had been destroyed, including 140 residential and 79 structures for agriculture or livelihood, resulting in the forced displacement of 755 people and impacting a total of 1,500 individuals, according to the statement.
"The number of people displaced as of August 2011 already exceeds the number of people displaced during the entire year of 2010," the statement said.
The demolitions, the rapporteurs explained, are a result of "discriminatory and restrictive zoning and planning policies applied by the government of Israel."
The special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, said that "the situation is clearly escalating and resulting in increasing human rights violations.
"Not only are these families, some of whom have been living there for decades, forcibly evicted from their homes but they are not provided with compensation or relocation, and are even forced to pay for the demolition itself and fines for having constructed 'illegally'," she said.
The rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water, Catarina de Albuquerque, said that at least 20 cisterns and 12 wells have been demolished since the beginning of 2011, "affecting access to drinking water for tens of thousands of Palestinians."
The special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, added that these destructions had "exacerbated food insecurity amongst Palestinians in the West Bank."
All three experts urged Israeli authorities to take steps to stop and investigate these destructions.
"The preferential treatment of Israeli settlers over Palestinians is blatantly discriminatory," the rapporteurs said.
"Israeli authorities must take all necessary measures to prevent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and Palestinian property... and investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed by settlers in an independent, impartial, effective, thorough and timely manner," they added.
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