The Israeli occupation demolishes an agricultural service room and bulldozes a metal fence in the village of Al-Fraijat, south of Al-Ramadin, in Hebron Governorate

January 19, 2022

• Violation: demolition of a room and bulldozing  a fence.
• Violation date: 19/01/2022.
• Location: Al-Fraijat village – Al-Ramadin / Hebron Governorate.
• The perpetrator: the so-called Israeli Civil Administration.
• Affected party:  A citizen of the Abu Raqeq clan.

The violation details:

On Wednesday, January 19, 2022, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished an agricultural service room and a metal fence under the pretext of “building without a permit” in the village of Arab al-Fraijat, south of the town of Ramadin in Hebron Governorate.

Eyewitnesses in the village of Arab al-Fraijat reported that a large force of the occupation army and the so-called border guards, accompanied by workers from an Israeli civil company and two bulldozers, one of them produced by “Hyundai” and the other by “Volvo”, had stormed – at about ten o’clock in the morning – a piece of land belonging to a citizen of the Abu Raqeq clan who resides in Israel. Once the workers have opened the door of an agricultural service room, and once they have thrown all belongings outside the bulldozers started demolishing it. 

The demolished agricultural service room has an area of about 70 m2 that was built two years ago out of bricks and roofed with wood and tiles as a resting place and as a store for agricultural tools.

During the aggression, the occupation bulldozers, also, destroyed a 400 meters long metal fence- barbed wire with tin plates attached- which was built around the land. 

Pictures 1-4: The ruins of the agricultural service room and damage caused to the fence.

 The target land was bought few years ago by Mr. Abu Raqeq, a Palestinian citizen of the Negev inside Israel. Its total area is estimated at 10 dunums fenced with barbed wires and ten plates and planted with olive saplings and equipped with an agricultural service room which all have been destroyed in the aforementioned aggression.

 It is worth mentioning that the occupation authorities had issued on 1/1/2022 a military order to demolish and remove the room and the fence, carrying the number of  20829 and threatened to implement the order  after 96 hours from the date of issuance, depending on Military Order No. 1797 issued in 2018.

A copy of demolition order No. 20829 targeting the facilities of the citizen Abu Raqeq

 It is worth noting that the village of Arab al-Fraijat is located to the east of the town of Arab al-Ramadin, and inhabited by 1,000 people working in agriculture, livestock, labor market and Palestinian governmental sector.

Arab al-Fraijat’s community is considered one of the closest population centers to the 1948 armistice line, overlooking the city of Beersheba. The occupation authorities set up a military checkpoint- Al-Zahiriya Crossing- on its land which leads to Israeli proper.

 Legal Commentary:

The demolition of Palestinian homes and installations by the occupation authorities is part of their violations of international and humanitarian law, and the violation of the right to adequate housing for Palestinian citizens guaranteed by international law and international treaties presented by the following articles:

• Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “Destruction and usurpation of property in a manner not justified by military necessity and on a large scale in an unlawful and arbitrary manner is a grave breaches of the convention.
• Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1948 prohibits the destruction of property, as this article states the following: “The occupying power is prohibited from destroying any private, fixed or movable property related to individuals or groups, the state or public authorities, or social or cooperative organizations, unless the war operations inevitably require this destruction.
• Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.
• Paragraph ‘g’ of Article 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 AD also warned against destroying or seizing the enemy’s property, unless the necessities of war necessarily require such destruction or seizure.
• Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dated December 10, 1948 states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”.