The demolition and evacuation of 111 Palestinian houses and other structures in Jerusalem during 2006

January 15, 2007

The Israeli occupation authorities continued to demolish and evacuate Palestinian houses in the occupied Jerusalem during the year 2006 under various pretexts such as the construction of the Segregation Wall, bypass roads and un-licensing. This policy aims at emptying the city of its indigenous Palestinian population and replacing them with Israeli settlers.

The Land Research Center, a Palestinian NGO and member of Habitat International Coalition, as part of its mandate of monitoring, documenting and writing about human rights violations, in general, and housing and land rights violations, in particular, has documented the following housing violations at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities in Jerusalem during 2006:

The total of 111 houses and other structures were demolished or forcibly evacuated as followed:
78 houses were demolished or forcibly evacuated with a total surface area of 8092 M2 causing the homelessness of 540 Palestinian Jerusalemites of whom 325 children under the age of 18. This figure includes 8 houses that were demolished for the purpose of Wall construction and 6 houses were demolished for the second time. It, also, includes 10 houses that were forcibly evacuated under the pretext of being old.
33 cases of demolition of other structures with a total surface area of 3000 M2 including commercial stores, garages, chicken and sheep farms, barracks and fuel stations.
The northern neighborhood of Beit Hanina witnessed the highest number of demolition -29 cases out of the total.
The month of December witnessed the highest number of demolition – 16 cases-
Dozens of additional demolition orders were distributed to owners in various parts of the occupied city during 2006.

Demolition, closure and seizure of Palestinian houses and other structures
by year under the pretext of un-licensing and security – Jerusalem governorate

Year	No. of house demolished	No. of other structures demolished	No. of tent demolished	No of House closed	No. of house seized	Eviction under the pretext of being old	Total	No. of affected people
								Fam. mem	Child
1997	27	56	58	—	4	0	145	NA	NA
1998	31	—	—	1	1	0	33	NA	NA
1999	39	—	17	3	5	0	64	NA	NA
2000	33	1	45	3	1	0	83	200	120
2001	78	9	—	2	1	0	90	500	270
2002	78	12	—	10	—	0	98	509	273
2003	147	10	0	1	9	11	178	996	553
2004	175	50	0	1	34	0	260	631	350
2005	120	25	0	0	0	0	145	481	249
2006	68	33	—	—	—	10	111	540	325
Total	796	196	120	21	55	21	1207	3857	2140

LRC calls upon all human rights groups and bodies, in general, and The Habitat International Coalition (HIC) in particular, to assume their responsibilities in defending the basic right of Palestinians to housing, and in using utmost efforts to pressurize Israel to stop its repeated aggressions against Palestinians and their properties in Jerusalem.

For further information, please visit our web site: www.lrcj.org , or contact LRC at: 02-2217239.

Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC