An Uptick of Demolished Palestinian houses in Jerusalem city

Israel has never desisted its belligerent and aggressive occupation related activities anytime after its occupation of the city (along with the rest of the West Bank areas and the Gaza Strip) in 1967; in fact Palestinian Jerusalemites have witnessed more discriminatory measures gradually adopted and codified in the legal and bureaucratic policies of the Israeli government. Israel has used these measures to limit the natural growth of Jerusalem's Palestinian population and force them to move out of the city. The most famous of these policies is the demolition of Palestinian houses under the pretext of building without valid permits issued by the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem.

A study conducted by the Applied Research Institute showed that during the years 2000 and 2008, around 600 Palestinian houses were demolished in Jerusalem city alleged for lacking valid building permits. Table 1 below details the number of houses that have been demolished over the past years:

Table 1: Demolished Palestinian Houses in Jerusalem city
Year	Jerusalem
2000	28
2001	51
2002	63
2003	94
2004	80
2005	78
2006	49
2007	60
2008	83
Total	586

Source: ARIJ Monthly Reports Database – 2009

Jerusalem Municipality targets more Palestinian houses in Jerusalem city since the beginning of year 2009

The Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem also escalated its demolition policy in Jerusalem city during the current year (2009) and targeted more Palestinian houses and other structures under the pretext of lacking valid building permits. Accordingly, more than 60 Palestinian houses were demolished in the city where in some cases, Palestinian owners were forced to demolish their own houses under after being threatened with tens of thousands Shekels in fines if they fail to take down their structures. Below are some incidents of house demolitions in various areas in Jerusalem:

Table 2: Demolished Palestinian Houses in Jerusalem city during the period of January to June 2009
No.	Date of Demolition	Owner & No. of family members	Location	Pretext
1	January 28, 2009	The demolition of the one storey house of Talal Ashweiki (8 family members)	Al Sawahreh Bridge in 'Ein Al Louza Street in Wadi Qaddum in Silwan city	lacking valid building permits
2	January 28, 2009	The demolition of a basement and four apartments owned by Muhammad 'Eid Al Ja'bari (45 family members)	Tel Al Foul area of Beit Hanina	lacking valid building permits
3	February 3, 2009	The demolition of the three-storey house of 'Imran Ghayth	Ras Khamis neighborhood in Jerusalem city	Its location close to the Segregation Wall
4	February 3, 2009	The demolition of the 160 m² and under construction house of Nabil Ghayth	Ras Khamis neighborhood in Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
5	February 5, 2009	the demolition of the under construction house (100 m²) of Musa Muhammad Abdullah Hamdan	Al 'Esawiyah town east of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
6	February 5, 2009	The demolition of the 120 m² house of Hatem Hussein Khalil	Al 'Esawiyah town east of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
7	February 5, 2009	Demolition of a house owned by Muhammad Ahmad Musa Mustafa (200 m² area)	Al 'Esawiyah town east of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
8	February 5, 2009	Demolition of the under construction houses (450 m² area) of Nabil and Muhammad Ahmad Mustafa	Al 'Esawiyah town east of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
9	February 9, 2009	Demolition of the 130 meters square house of Khaled As Sayyad (7 family members)	Al Sahel Area in At Tur neighborhood	lacking valid building permits
10	February 7, 2009	Demolition of 4 Bedouin barracks and displacing 35 people	Al 'Ezariyah – East of Jerusalem	Illegal residents of the area
11	February 15, 2009	Citizen Jameel Al Shaludi was fored to demolish his own 120 m² house	Al 'Aqaba neighborhood in Beit Hanina city north of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
12	March 2, 2009	Demolition of the 130 m² house of Mahmoud Yousif Al 'Abassi (10 family members)	'Ein Al Louza neighbourhood in Silwan city	lacking valid building permits
13	March 2, 2009	Demolition of the three storey house of Muhammad Taha 'Afanah (10 family members)	Sur Baher village southeast of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
14	March 5, 2009	Citizen Sharif Muhammad 'Attoun was forced to demolish his 100 m² house (6 family members)	Sur Baher city south of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
15	March 8, 2009	Citizen Khalil Muhammad Tarhuni was forced to demolish his 25 m² house	Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
16	March 12, 2009	Demolition of a 80 m² section of the house, displacing 4 people	Sur Bahir city	lacking valid building permits
17	March 17, 2007	The demolition of the top floor of a six floor apartment building owned by Mahfouz Abu Khalaf (7 family members)	Beit Safafa in Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
18	March 18, 2009	Demolition of Two dwellings of zinc (75 m² each. One dwelling housed 10 people and the other housed 9 people	Jabal al Baba in al 'Eizariya town southeast of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
19	March 18, 2009	Demolition of the 80 m² house of Al Ghazi Family	Hayat Aziz area of Al 'Eizariya town southeast of Jerusalem city	lacking valid building permits
20	April 6, 2009	Demolition of a 120 m² house (two apartments) owned by 'Amran and 'ammar Abd Ar-Rahman Al-Fakhouri (14 family members)	Burj Al-Laqlaq area in the Old City of Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
21	April 22, 2009	Demolition of the 70 m² house of Ammar Hdedon (7 family members)	Jabal Mukabbir neighborhood of East Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
22	May 17, 2009	Citizen Abdel Naser 'Adel Hamdallah was forced to demolish his own 65 m² house	Al Sal'a neighborhood in Jabal Al Mukkabir	lacking valid building permits
23	June 9, 2009	Citizen Muhammad Gosheh demolished his own 80 m² house (5 family members)	Aqbet At Tut area in Khan Az Zeit market in the Old City of Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
24	June 9, 2009	Demolition of a 25 m² addition to an existing house of Khalil Al Hartuni (10 family members)	Old City of Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
25	June 12, 2009	Citizen Jamal Sa'id was forced to demolish a 25 m² room which was an addition to his existing house	Al-Khalidiyya neighborhood in the old city of Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits
26	June 12, 2009	Citizen Osama Hashima was forced to demolish his 30 m² room he had added to his home.	Al-Khalidiyya neighborhood in the old city of Jerusalem	lacking valid building permits

Source: ARIJ Monthly Reports – 2009

House Demolition Threats in Jerusalem city

The Municipality of Jerusalem has also targeted Palestinian owned houses with demolition orders under the same pretext (building with proper licensing documents). Palestinian owners of the targeted houses have tried repeatedly before they start building the houses to acquire the proper building permits from the municipality but failed to do so due to the many obstacles set by the department in-charge in the municipality. Some of these obstacles are: – the excessive overcharge for building permits application, the rezoning of the Arab-Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem to make it out of the designated areas set for development, the excessive fines against those who are building. On the other hand, Israeli residents do not face similar problems, which makes these deliberate hassles just plain discriminatory procedures against the Israeli Arab-Palestinians living in the occupied territory, specifically in East Jerusalem, where Israeli-Jews do not have to undergo any of the procedures demanded of Palestinians and non- of the policies and regulations set by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem apply to the Israeli-Jews living in East Jerusalem or as they are identified by the international the illegal residents of the Israeli occupation.

During the period of year 2000 & June 2009, Israel has delivered around 5000 demolition orders to Palestinian citizens in Jerusalem. Graph 1 below, details the number of Palestinian houses that received demolition threats over the past years.

Legal & International Status

Destruction of Palestinian property and demolition of homes is contrary to international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which indicates that ' Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. is a grave breach of the Convention'; and Article 53 of the same convention which also states that 'any destruction by the Occupying power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or other public authorities or social or cooperative organizations is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.' Also the universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads that 'No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.' Which means it bans Israel from destroying or confiscating the property of the Palestinians at any case.

Therefore, it is clear that the Israeli actions holds no legal grounds but only reflects Israel determination to maintain control on the city without recognizing its divine characteristic and eminence to the world which will put an end to any attempt to realize a just and lasting peace.

Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem