Issuance of a demolition order for the house of the prisoner’s family, Ghaith Jaradat,  from Silat Al Harithiya village_Jenin governorate

January 31, 2022

• Violations: A house demolition order under the pretext of security.
• Location: Silat Al-Harithiya village, northwest of Jenin.
• Date of violation: 31/01/2022.
• The aggressor party: the Israeli occupation army.
• Affected party: the family of the prisoner Ghaith Ahmed Muhammad Yassin Jaradat.

The violation details:

On the morning of Monday, January 31, 2022, the so-called commander of the Israeli occupation army, under security pretexts, issued an order to demolish the house of the family of the prisoner Ghaith Ahmed Muhammad Yassin Jaradat, 17, from Silat Al-Harithi village northwest of Jenin.

It is noteworthy that this military order, which was verbally notified to the family through the “HaMoked” organization, came after the family’s petition to the Supreme Occupation Court was rejected with the aim of stopping the demolition of the house.

According to the field follow-up at the site of the violation, the targeted house  consists of two floors with an area of 140 square meters each. The first floor houses the prisoner Ghaith, and his brothers Miqdam, Muhtasib and Hanadi, in addition to the parents -6 persons- while the second floor houses the brother of the detainee, Usaid, his wife and children – 4 persons-.

The occupation considers the policy of demolishing homes belonging to the families of those responsible for  killings  settlers in the West Bank as a means of putting pressure on these families as a collective punishment against them.

The occupation authorities issue orders entitled “Announcement of the Intent to Confiscate and Demolish a Home….” Those whom it accuses of resisting under the British Emergency Law during the Mandate period in Palestine, according to the system 119 of 1945 AD, bearing in mind that this unjust law was repealed before the end of the Mandate in 1948 AD and the Israeli occupation has no right to implement it.  Moreover, the demolition affects others who have nothing to do with the matter, namely the sons and wife of the accused and his extended family or renters in the building… It also causes cracks in the rest of the apartments in the building, which are inhabited by neighbors and strangers who do not know the accused well. Since Article (119) of this law deals with “demolition and confiscation,” this means that a citizen cannot rebuild a house in the place of the demolished house. The occupation authorities are also keen to annually extend the emergency law issued by the British Mandate over Palestine, to be used against Palestinian citizens.

The Land Research Center views such aggressive attacks against Palestinian homes as falling within the policy of collective punishment pursued by the occupation authorities against the families of martyrs and prisoners, a policy through which the occupation seeks to pressure families, intimidate them, destroy the rest of their lives, “abuse them” and impose difficult living conditions on them. The occupation authorities acknowledge that such decisions aim to “deter” the Palestinians so that they do not carry out military attacks against the occupation and its settlers who carry out crimes against the Palestinians, such as burning of the Dawabshe family and cases of running over children and women on the roads, especially near the settlements, as well as carrying out crimes against thousands of trees, including burning, destruction and bulldozing. Not to mention the theft of land in favor of continuous settlement expansion… Despite all these attacks, the colonists did not find any deterrent, neither by arresting them nor demolishing their homes… On the contrary, all these attacks take place under the protection of the Israeli occupation army.