Hundreds of armed Istraeli soldiers stormed Almuallimeen suburb at Alasqariyah quarter in Beit Hanina (Jerusalem). They were divided into two groups to demolish two large building claiming that they are not licensed by the occupation municipality in Jerusalem. The two buildings are about 200 m far from each other. They are located in front of Raikhis Shu'fat (settlement) established on the land of Shu'fat and Lifta southwest of Alasqariyah suburb; see map.
Click on the Map to see photos.
At 8 p.m on the morning of 20/8/2001, the police and Israeli Borders's Guard estimated at about 350 closed all the entrances of Alasqariyah quarter – Almualimeen suburb. They were accompanied with four large caterpillars (9D). The bulldozers started demolishing the building of 1400 m2, 5 floors that accommodates 9 apartments and 63 rooms. Ibrahim Hussein Abed Alqader Aljoulani owns this building. He was absent at the time and was not informed about the demolishing order. The people crowded at the place to prevent the demolishing process, but they were cruelly dealt with by the Israeli soldiers; see photo.
During the demolishing process the owner Ibrahim Aljoulani came to the site and told the Land Research Center fieldworker that: 'at 8:45 p.m he was called by one of his neighbors telling him that large number of police and army soldiers are in the vicinity of your house. When I reached the site, I tried to talk with municipality officer to stop the demolishing process, but he was not available. The policeman supervising the demolishing process told me that he would call him, but that also didn't not happen. The municipality officer came after the completion of demolishing the house. He showed me a document claiming that it was the demolishing order.
The occupied Jerusalem Municipality claimed that they stuck the demolishing order at the wall of the building at 5 p.m of 19/8/2001, one day before the demolition took place. Mr. Aljoulani denied this claim because no one in the area saw this order. This happened to prevent the victim from submitting an appeal to the court. This is not the first time that Olmert municipality demolished houses without notifying the owners. It is worth mentioning that the building exists in a residential crowded area; see photo.
At the same time and at the same area, under a strong military siege, a huge caterpillar and three bulldozers demolished the house owned by Mohammad Hilal Najjar ( 57 years old). The house is composed of one floor with an area of 410 m2 to be used as a kindergarten. It is composed of 10 rooms, 6 bathrooms in addition to entrance and exit planned to serve three floors. The owner said that we were surprised with the existence of large forces closing the area. They said that they received a demolishing order under the pretext that the building is not licensed; see photo..
A sadist Revenging Behavior:
The owners of the demolished houses indicated that the Israeli soldiers (males and females) expressed great pleasure while demolishing the house by laughing and showing provocative gestures. This indicates the sick mentality and bad psychology of those people. The people at the site said that one of the Israeli soldiers said that Aljoulani family would pay a high price due the military attack committed by a member of Aljoulani family few days ago in front of the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian building is a troubling fact to the Municipality of occupied Jerusalem:
Occupied Jerusalem Israeli Municipality claimed that they demolished the houses to apply the Israeli laws in order to prevent the phenomena of unlicensed building widespread in East Jerusalem. The number of unlicensed-houses increases by 1000 house each year.
The Security Supervision Committee in Jerusalem held a meeting chaired by Auzi Landau (minister of internal security) two days before the demolishing. Several Palestinians in Jerusalem have received warning to demolish their houses because the do not have building license since the beginning of this year. Although 80% of illegal construction in Jerusalem took place in West Jerusalem, 80% of house demolishing took place in East Jerusalem according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolishing. One of the demolishing opponents asked: why when the demolishing order is related to a house in East Jerusalem it is immediately implemented without following due procedures. However, when the same thing is applicable in West Jerusalem, the illegal building is left until it is fallen down naturally. This is a clear translation to the discrimination policy, the policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Jerusalem since the occupation in 1967. This policy utilizes all means such as house demolishing, to force Palestinians to live outside Jerusalem, as well as confiscating land, identity cards, closing institution and limiting means of social and economic living.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
