Intensive demolition campaign against Palestinian housing in Jerusalem during the first three months of 2006

The occupation Municipality of Jerusalem is continuing its occupational policies and practices in East Jerusalem which include house demolition, land plowing, land confiscation, Wall construction and illegal settlement, in addition to creating hurdles and obstacles to make Palestinian life in Jerusalem virtually impossible.

Demolition of Palestinian Homes in Jerusalem:

The Occupation Municipality of Jerusalem (OMJ) continued since the beginning of 2006 to demolish Palestinian homes in a number of locations throughout the city under a number of pretexts atop of which is the pretext of building without permit. Most of the demolitions were accompanied by threats of targeting additional homes in East Jerusalem. According to Meir Marghalit, an ex-member of the OMJ, the Municipality has budgeted US$600,000 for Palestinian house demolition in Jerusalem during this year. Since the beginning of this year more than 246 house demolition orders have been sent to Jerusalemites living in Sur Baher, Jabal Al Mukabber, Silwan and Shufat. TheIsraeli executive branches are trying hard to accomplish this inhumane mission. Lawyers working on behalf of the affected Palestinians managed to freeze only a few of these demolition orders.

During the months of January through March, 2006, the following houses were demolished:

• 24 houses with a total surface area of 3370 m2. The number of demolished rooms in these houses is over 110(Source: LRC filed work).

• Leaving more than 129 Palestinians homeless of whom 77 are children after the demolition of their homes. â??Sinsâ?? that these Palestinians might have committed include their inability to gain building permits from the OMJ or that the route of the Israeli Segregation Wall may have come tens of meters away from this house or that ( Source: LRC filed work).

Official and Non-Official Racism:

There is no difference between the official and non-official racism when it comes down to threatening the Palestinian presence and homes in East Jerusalem. For example, the racist Zionist Arieh King, leader of the racist movement in Jerusalem and the one responsible for developing the Israeli settlement in Ras Al Amoud Arab neighborhood has submitted a plea to the Israeli High Court requesting the demolition of Palestinian houses in Beit Hanina under the pretext that they were built without the proper permits. He based his claim on a quote by the then-head of the OMJ, Ehud Olmert, who said that "Palestinian Building in East Jerusalem is a cancer that threatens the Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem."

The perpetrators have no respect to the rulings of their own courts

The OMJ demolished two floors of a five-floor building on the 3rd of January, 2006 located on the road tha links between Hizma village and Beit Hanina.  The building, which housed 12 apartments, is owned by Mr. Osama Abu Khalaf and the two additional floors were demolished under the pretext that they were built without obtaining the required permits. That was despite the fact that the first three floors were established after the required permits were obtained earlier. As for the remaining two floors, the owner submitted a request to obtain the permit on June 23rd, 2004. Rather than issuing the proper permits as followed regularly, the Municipality issued a demolition order instead on December 25th, 2005. On the morning of the demolition the building owner managed to get an injunction order to stop the demolition process. Yet, the contractor and the representative of the Municipality refused to accept the court order and continued the demolition process until its end. Mr. Sami Irsheid, the lawyer of Mr. Abu Khalaf, indicated afterwards that 'The OJM is not interested in honoring the rules and laws set by the occupation itself. It only cares to demolish buildings in East Jerusalem as it is ready to remove the largest number of Palestinian buildings in that area using loopholes in the present laws."

Land without people

The OMJ demolished three houses in Al Juweiza  quarter in the village of Al Walaja in the southwestern parts of East Jerusalem. An intense ethnic cleansing policy is currently being carried out against the 400 residents of Al Juweiza. Israeli occupation authorities have decided in the near past that the neighborhood must be put under the jurisdictions of the Municipality, but without its Palestinian residents.  Note here that the OMJ have demolished 17 houses in the neighborhood in the past few years while it issued demolition orders against 26 houses in the village.

Too small house

In the neighborhood of Silwan in south Jerusalem the OMJ demolished the house of Mr. Ahmad Abdel Razeq Siyam on January 16th, 2006 under the pretext of no building permits. The family that used to live in the house told LRC's field worker that the house had become too small to cater for its needs. As such, Mr. Siyam added two more rooms with an area of 60 m2. The appeal that the family filed against the demolition order in front of the Municipality Court for Local Affairs did not help to stop the upcoming demolition. Even the deteriorating health of the house owner and the critical economic condition of the family did not make the Municipality abandon its plans to demolish the house. The OMJ left for the family nothing but the old house whose area is only 40 m2.

The demolition of a 780 M2 residential building

At 6:30 AM on February 11th, 2006, and before even the Municipality began its official working day, its bulldozers demolished a two-story building in the Al Kharayeb location in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina. The 780-m2 building which consisted of four apartments in addition to a basement belonged to the families of both Mr. Khader Ishaq Abu Khdair and his brother Mr. Ibrahim Ishaq Abu Khdair.

The Abu Khdair family started the building process back in 2000. In June, 2005 the Israeli Interior Ministry issued an administrative demolition order against the building which was not finalized as of yet. The family appealed to the Central Court in Jerusalem which gave them only a three-month time period during which they should obtain the required permits; a mission that is impossible to accomplish in the specified time period.

When the family refused to demolish the house on its own as the court has ordered, the OMJ sent in its three huge bulldozers under the protection of tens of Israeli soldiers to the building which was subsequently razed to the ground.

House demolished for Wall construction

Occupation bulldozers demolished on February 13th, 2006 the house of Mr. Fareed Mohammad Abu Al Dhabaâ??at due to its proximity to the Israeli Annexation and Expansion Wall. The area of the house was about 250 m2 and it was located in Abu Mughira location in As Sawahra Ash Sharqiya. It housed 7 individuals 5 of whom are children. See Photo 3 & Photo 4 

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Despite the fact that the house was built in 2003 (long before the erection of the Wall) on a land owned by Mr. Abu Al Dhabaâ??at at a distance of at least 100 m away from the planned route of the Wall, yet the occupation forces did not hesitate to demolish it due to the false claim that it was located in the same location where a Wall gate is planned to be placed. Israel is trying to evade the accusation that the house was demolished due to its close proximity to the Wall by claiming that the demolition took place because the house was built illegally.

The demolition took place in the absence of the house owner because he was not informed by the Israeli occupation authorities about the timing of the demolition. Mr. Abu Al Dhabaâ??at informed the LRC field worker of the following: 'I was contacted by the neighbors who told me that the bulldozers reached the site of the house at about 7:10 AM. By the time I reached the house, it was gone. All gone'.

Demolition in absence of owner

At 10:00 AM on February 15th, 2006 Israeli bulldozers demolished the house of Mr. Naseem Lutfi Attallah located in the Farooq neighborhood in Jabal Al Mukkaber south of the Old City of Jerusalem. Mr. Attallah told the LRC field worker that: 'I started building the house in the first half of September 2005. I found a demolition order glued to it on February 13th, 2006. The next day I hired a lawyer to take all necessary legal actions to halt the demolition. On February 15th, 2006, I was surprised when one of my neighbors phoned me and told me that the Israeli bulldozers were demolishing my house. When I reached the location, it was all razed to the ground'.

The Demolishing of Other Properties:

Israeli occupations authorities have carried out a series of demolitions of stone and cement-made formations including storage rooms, garages and walls in a number of locations in East Jerusalem. Moreover, the OMJ have destroyed 6 private gas stations in the village of Hizma while confiscating fuel storage pipes and a large quantity of fuel under the pretext those stations were 'illegal'.

Photo 5: Hizma: An Israeli truck transferring the confiscated fuel tanks)

Photo courtesy of Al Quds Newspaper

Table 1: House demolition in Jerusalem during 2006 by month (From 1/1/2006 – 31/3/2006)

Source: Field work by LRC

Table 2: Demolition, closure and seizure of Palestinian houses and structures by year under the pretext of un-licensing and security

Jerusalem governorate

Prepared by
 The Land Research Center
LRC