Series of Demolition Orders in Several parts in the Northern Jordan Valley

February 19, 2013

As the suffering of the Palestinian Bedouin communities is still interacting, the Israeli Occupation Authorities is moving steadily with its war against the Bedouins in all West bank areas mainly in the Jordan Valley where the Israeli Occupation Army handed over Palestinians citizens in four communities in the Northern part of the Jordan Valley dozens of military demolition orders for their structures under the pretext of lacking building permits:

Three demolition orders in Al-‘Auja Community North of Jericho

On February 3, 2012, the Israeli Occupation Army stormed An-Najada Bedouin community north of Al-‘Auja town north of Jericho city and handed over two local citizens demolition orders for their structures under the pretext of lacking building permits. See table 1 below:

Table 1: Details of the targeted structures in Al-‘Auja North of Jericho
No.	Owner Name	No. of family members	Structure Type	Area (m²⁾
1	‘Abed Rhayel Najada	4	Residential	40
1	‘Abed Rhayel Najada	5	Residential	60
2	Yasir Mahmoud ‘Ali Ka’abneh	6	Residential	120
Total		15	*****	220
Source: ARIJ field Workers- Al-‘Auja Municipality

ARIJ fieldworkers interviewed Mr. Fakhri Njoum head of Al-‘Auja Municipality where he indicated that the threatened residential structures was built one year ago in Al-Najada Bedouin community where most of the community area is classified as area ‘B’ according to the Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995 while the Israeli authorities claim that these houses are located in area ‘C’ while in fact, the threatened structures are just few meters away from the old houses located in area ‘B’. See Photos of the targeted structures

Photos 1-4: The targeted structures in Al ‘Auja

Figure 1-4: the Israeli demolition Orders in Al-‘Auja

Al-‘Auja is a Palestinian town located about 10 km north of the city of Jericho. The town is bordered by the village of Fasayel along with the illegal Israeli settlement of Gilgal from the north, An-Nuei’ma village from the south, the Jordan River from the east and the illegal settlement of Yitav from the west. According to the Palestinian Central Burea of Statistics Population Projection -2013, Al-‘Auja is populated by 4,808 citizens distributed on 1126 dunums which constitute the built-up area for the town

Al-Zubeidat community Targeted with Nine Demolition Orders

On February 4, 2013, the Israeli Army Forces stormed Al-Zubeidat village in the far north of Jericho city and handed over the local citizens nine military demolition orders for their houses and structures under the pretext of lacking proper building authorization calling the owners of the targeted structures to submit for building license to the so-called ‘Israeli regional building and planning committee in Beit ‘El’ in its upcoming session on March 13, 2013, otherwise their structures would be demolished . See table 2 below:

Table 2: Details of the targeted structures in Al-Zubeidat Village
No.	Owners Name	Family Mbrs	Type of Structure	Area m²
1	‘Atef Salameh Salem Abu Dabbous	7	Residential house	100
2	Farouq Abdel Karim Mohammad Zubeidat	10	Residential House	120
3	Ahmad Ibrahim ‘Odeh Zubeidat	7	Agriculture Barracks	30
4	Karim ‘Odeh Youseph Al-‘Aryan	8	House + Barracks	500
5	Ibrahim Salim Salameh Zubeidat	9	Agriculture Barracks	60
6	Mohammad Ahmad Farhan Zubeidat	7	Agriculture Barracks	40
7	Salah Salameh Salem Abu Dabbous	7	Agriculture Barracks	80
8	Farhan Salman Mohammad Suleiman	6	Residential House	120
9	Ramez ‘Amer Al-F’oury	11	Playground	400
Total		72	*****	1,450
Source: ARIJ field Workers- Al-Zubeidat Village Council

Photo 5-13: Photos of the threatened Structures in Al-Zubeidat Village

Al-Zubeidat is a Palestinian village located in the middle of the Jordan valley and has a population of 1,658 citizens (PCBS Population Projection – 2013). It is bordered by Marj Na’jeh from the north, Marj Ghazal from the south, the Israeli bypass road #90 from the east, and the Illegal Israeli settlement of Argaman from the west.

Demolition Orders in Bardala in the Far north of the Jordan Valley

On February 7, 2013, the Israeli Occupation Army handed over Palestinian citizens from Bardala village northeast of the city of Tubas three military demolition orders for two agriculture water pools and a Barracks under the pretext of lacking building permits. See table 3 below:

Table 3: Details of the threatened structures in Bardala- Tubas
No.	Owners Name	Type of Structure
1	Jihad Saleh Sawafta	10m³ Agriculture Water Pool
2	Ashraf Mustapha Ibrahim Sawafta	10m³ Agriculture Water Pool
3	Fawwaz Ahmad Fayez Sawafta	240 m² Barracks
Source: ARIJ field Workers

Photos 14-21: the targeted structures in Bardala village

Bardala is a Palestinian village within Tubas governorate, located 13 km northeast of the city of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley. The village has a population of 1,973 (PCBS Population Projection – 2013) with a built-up area of 480 dunums out of the 20,000 dunums (the total village area) which constitute 4% of the Tubas governorate’s land area.

The village of Bardala is surrounded by Ein Al Beida, Kardala and the illegal Israeli settlement of ‘Mehola’ (established in1968) from the east and the southeast, the Green Line (1949 Armistice Line) and the Israeli Segregation Wall from the north and the Jordan Valley mountains from the west and southwest. It is worth mentioning that 93% of Bardala’s citizens are engaged in the agricultural sector since 10,000 dunums of the village lands (50%) are arable lands.

Demolition Orders in Al-Malih East of Tubas

On February 7, 2013, the Israeli Army Forces ‘Ein Al- Hilweh area in Al-Malih east of Tubas Governorate in the Northern parts of the Jordan valley and handed over eight citizens from the community military demolition orders for their structures under the pretext of lacking building permits. See table 4 below:

Table 4: Details for the Targeted structures in ‘Ein Al-Hilweh – Tubas
No.	Owner Name	Family Mbrs	Type of Structure
1	Mohammad Rhaeil Suleiman Ka’bneh	8	Residential barracks
			Two animal sheds
2	Suleiman Rhaeil Suleiman Ka’bneh	9	Residential barracks
			Two animal sheds
3	Rhaeil Suleiman Ka’abneh	11	Two Residential barrackses
			Two animal sheds
4	Khader Ibrahim Ahmad Daraghmeh	8	Two Residential barrackses
			Two animal sheds
5	Nabil Mustapha Mohammad Daraghmeh	10	Two Residential barrackses
			Three animal sheds
6	Khalid Salem Ahmad Ka’abneh	10	Residential barracks
			Two animal sheds
7	Ahmad Rhaeil Suleiman Ka’abneh	4	Two Residential barrackses
			Two animal sheds
8	Fatimah Nassar Ka’abneh	4	Residential barracks
			Two animal sheds
Total		64	29

Photos 22-23: The targeted Strcutures in ‘Ein Al-Hilweh

Al Malih is a Palestinian communities located east of Tubas Governorate in the northern parts of the West Bank. It is bordered by Bardala community to the north, Khirbet Al-Hadidieyyeh to the south, Al-Farisiyeh as well as the Illegal Israeli settlement of Rotem to the east, Al -‘Aqaba and Tayaseer villages to the west.

The area of Al-Malih holds seven Bedouin communities, Al-Hadidiya, Khallet Makhoul, Samra, ‘Ein Al-Hilwa, Wadi Al-Malih, and Al-Himma. The whole area has a total population of around 430 people (PCBS 2012). The area is classified as ‘Area C’ according to Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995 and falls under full Israeli control. Furthermore, the area holds a mass number of water springs, which are controlled by the Israeli occupation authorities and Israeli settlers, who prevent Palestinian Communities in the Jordan valley area from benefiting from these springs.

Building licenses in the Jordan Valley (like the rest of West Bank villages), were obtained from the Israeli ‘Civil Administration’, from 1967 until Oslo Agreement in 1995. Before 1995, building licenses were very difficult and almost impossible to obtain, and the citizens waited for a long time before getting the license and most of the times fail to get it. After 1995 and the Classification of the West Bank land into A, B, C categories where A are the Lands under the complete Palestinian control, B are the lands were the Palestinian Authority has full control over the civil administration and Israel continues to have overriding responsibility for security, and C are the areas where the Palestinian authority has responsibility for civil life such as health and education while Israel retains full control over security and administration related to territory, including land.

This means that lands are located within areas classified as ‘C’ must continue to acquire building licenses from the Israeli ‘Civil Administration’ where their permits most often are refused.

In the Jordan Valley area, the Israeli Civil administration almost never issue any building permits for Palestinians to construct in the Jordan Valley area and this is due to the fact that 51.4% of the J. Valley lands are classified as closed military areas while 95% of the lands are classified as Israeli controlled area which actually include the closed military areas, settlements, outpost, natural reserve military bases and mined areas…etc).

In fact, Palestinians were denied permits to build clinics for emergency services, and school classes for children, among many other services. Indeed, the Jordan valley area stands to be the least development area in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967. See Map 1

Map 1: the location of the targeted communities in the Jordan valley

Legal & International Status

The Israeli seizing and razing of Palestinian-owned lands and destroying the Palestinian properties is Illegal and constitute a grave breach for the International law rules and conventions, some of which are listed below:

Article 53 & 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 indicated that: Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, is a grave breach of the Convention.
Moreover Art. 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 also provides: In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.
Also under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads: ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.’ Which means it bans Israel from destroying or confiscating the property of the Palestinians at any case.
‘Article 12’ of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
In the year 2004 the United Nations Security Council called on Israel to stop demolition of Palestinian homes under Resolution No. 1544-(2004), the resolution states: ‘The Security Council called on Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law, particularly the obligation not to undertake home demolitions contrary to that law’.