House demolition alert in Beit Sahour

Beit Sahour is a Palestinian town located adjacent to the city of Bethlehem and has always been facing violations by the Israeli forces as many other Palestinian cities in the West Bank such as human rights violations, land confiscation, uprooting of trees and house demolition. The city has around 11,000 inhabitants and historically known as the ''Shepherds Field'' according to the Biblical tradition.

In the year 2002, the Israeli Occupation Authorities decided to erect a Segregation Wall around Bethlehem district where a major part of it is constructed near Beit Sahour. In May 2002, the IOF issued military orders to stop construction in16 buildings in Beit Sahour where 7 of those buildings are part of the Orthodox Housing project and the rest are nearby houses, See Table 1.

In September 2002, the IOF decided to demolish the Orthodox housing complex that is located in area C and is passing close to this unilaterally imposed Segregation Wall by Israel. Fortunately, the international and local pressures on the Israeli Authorities were able to freeze the demolition decision. See Map 1

Table 1-Names and numbers of military orders to stop construction in May 2002 

Source: Beit Sahour Municipality, 2002

Recently, on March 31st 2003, executives from both the IOF and the Israeli ''District regulatory Council'' came to the site and orally forewarned 2 of the owners of the previously threatened houses in addition to other 2 house owners that did not receive demolition orders that their houses will be demolished either on the 2nd or 3rd of April 2003. The owners that were noticed orally about the demolition are:  

1-     Nadia Barakat

2-Ibrahim Nairoukh 1 & 2   

3-     Naif Sharabati

4-     Suliman Zawahra

For more details, See Map 2

The reason for demolition as claimed by the IOF is building in area C without permits from the Israeli Authorities in Bet IL. However, most of the people have building permits from the municipality of Beit Sahour as the responsible Licensing Authority of that area. As a precaution measure, the owners also applied for building permits from Bet IL and are still awaiting for their approval. As it can be observed from the locations of the houses, the IOF wants to have a buffer zone near the Segregation Wall that they have erected recently. This Segregation Wall is illegal according to international law and UN resolutions 242 & 338 that declare the West Bank an Occupied Palestinian Territory.   

Since the beginning of the second Intifada, the Israeli Authorities have been using the policy of house demolition in order to limit the urban expansion and to strangulate the Palestinian communities living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Therefore, the Israeli house-demolition policy is against the international humanitarian laws and conventions which Israeli signed and ratified.    

Prepared by:

The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem