def remove_xml_element(name, tree):
    """ Removes XML elements from an ElementTree content tree """
    # root = tree.getroot()
    remove = tree.findall(
        ".//{{http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata}}{}".format(name)
    )
    if not remove:
        return tree

    parent_map = {c: p for p in tree.iter() for c in p}

    for elem in remove:
        parent = parent_map[elem]
        parent.remove(elem)

    return tree
Removes XML elements from an ElementTree content tree