Israeli Occupation Forces Demolishes Three Houses in Al Essawiyah Village

A large Israeli military force demolished three houses in Al  Essawiyah village at 1:00 AM on April 18th, 2000. The demolished houses  were owned by three Palestinian families that houses 37 persons, out of them are  15 children.

Location:

The village is located to the northeast of Jerusalem as indicated  by the attached map. (see map)
It borders the lands of Al Khan Al Ahmar from the east, the French Hill colony  and Hadassa Hospital from the west, Shua'afat and Anata from the north, and the  Hebrew University and Al Tour from the south.

The landscape of Al Essawiyah:

According to documents issued during the British Mandate, the  total area of the village is about 12,000 dunums. After the Israeli occupation  of 1967, a great portion of the village's lands was annexed to Jerusalem Municipality.  The rest of the village land was controlled and treated as the rest of the West  Bank. As a result, the village residents had to live in one village that is governed  by two different sets of rules.  At the beginning of the nineties, Israel constructed a by-pass road connecting  the colony of Ma'ale Adummim and East Jerusalem. The by-pass road encircles the  village from the east and the north, dividing the village lands into two segments;  the first one, area of about 2000 dunums, is located to the west of the road and  is considered to be the heart of the village as most of the villagers reside there.  Out of the 2000 dunums, only 680 dunums were zoned as residential area. In addition,  Israel had expropriated 600 dunums to the benefit of the French Hill settlement and  the Hebrew University Campus located nearby. This left about 700 dunums outside  of the jurisdiction of the Master Plan. These dunums house a great number of homes  that residents were obliged to construct without appropriate permits to face the  crushing housing problem. The second part of the village is located to the east  of the by-pass road extending to Al Khan Al Ahmar. Its area is 10,000 dunums of  cultivated land. This part is under the control of the military authorities of  Beit El and it is where the demolished houses are located.

The Demolishing of the Three Houses:

The three demolished houses were built in March and April of  this year to face the housing crunch faced by most Jerusalemites and to enable  the families to care for their cultivated land. The area of such lands is about  140 dunums, belongs to more than 1500 heirs, and has been farmed for hundreds  of years by the families of Dirbas, Dari, and Muhaisen. The three demolished houses  belonged to the following people: 

(Source: Land Research Center – Arab studies Society, Jerusalem  April 2000)

Mr. Mohammad Musa Dirbas, 52, that on the 17th of  April 2000, a great number of soldiers surrounded his house at 11:00 AM while  a military commander gave him the military court decision to demolish his house  under the pretext that it was State Land. Mr. Dirbas said that the order gave  only four hours to evacuate.

Israeli Forces Demolishes the Houses despite the Interference  of Mr. Faisal Husseini:

Mr. Faisal Husseini visited the sites before they were demolished  accompanied by the lawyer of the Orient House. Mr. Husseini entered a heated debate  with the Military Governor who was present at site at that time. Both agreed that  the issue of house demolishing has a political dimension and that it should be  discussed within the context of the final status negotiations. Mr. Husseini requested  the delay of the demolition order until the day after, to give him the chance  to make some arbitration on the political level. Permission was granted and the  military force left the area.

Yet, the Israeli forces came back at 1:00 AM, only six hours  after the meeting with Mr. Husseini, and demolished the three houses.

Al Essawiyah Residents Are not to Use their Lands While  Jews  From Everywhere Can:

The residents of the village were outraged by the barbaric  demolishing of the three houses and were amaised at the fact that they can't any  more use their lands. That is at time when Israel is expanding Jewish settlements like Mishor Adummim and Ma'ale Adummim in the east, the French Hill, the Hebrew  University, and Hadasa Hospital in the north and west, in addition to the military  encampments s in the south.

As a reaction to the demolishing of the three houses and to  prove their ownership of the land, the residents of the village and the owners  of the demolished houses set up tents atop and near the demolished houses. A huge  number of Israeli military personal surrounded the village on the 23rd of April  2000 and used two heavy-duty bulldozers to destroy the under-construction houses  in addition to the tents. As to add insult to injury, the Israeli forces confiscated  the tents and the house appliances within the tents, beating in the process Mr.  Mahmoud Hamdan who required medical attention in the hospital. The following table lists the names of Al Essawiyah residents  whose house andor tents were destroyed on the 23rd of April 2000. 

(Source: Land Research Center – Arab studies Society, Jerusalem  April 2000)

Demolishing Orders:

Up until today, tens of the residents of the village have received  house-demolishing orders. Such orders have been carried out randomly in different  parts of the village as to avoid events similar to the ones that took place on  the 28th of January 1999 when Mr. Zaki Obeid was killed and 12 others  injured during the demolishing of the house of Mahmood Issa Abu Oweis. The following table illustrates the series of house demolishings  in the village since 1985 until today: 

(Source: Palestinian Human Rights Information Center and Land  Research Center)
 

Reaction:

The Land Research Center issued a statement decrying the series  of house demolishing in Al Essawiyah, totaling 32 so far since 1985. The Center  also warned that carrying out the Israeli plan would suffocate the village and  would lead to the expropriation of more and more of its lands to enlarge the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and nearby Anatot military encampment. This plan is part of a  larger scheme to encircle occupied Jerusalem and its suburbs and to create more  facts of the ground at the time that we have reached the phase of Final Status  Negotiations.

The Center also demanded that the international community to  carry out its obligations and responsibilities and to pressure into respecting  international resolutions and conventions in the human rights arena.

Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC