On June 15, 2009, the Israeli occupation Army handed twelve Palestinian families from Deir Ballut village military orders notifying them that their houses will be demolished under the pretext of lacking building permits.
The owners of the 12 Palestinian houses are:
1. Mr. Kahalil Mahmud Mohammad Abdullah.
2. Mr. Ahmad Mohammad Ahmad Dar Mousa.
3. Idris Jubbara Abdullah.
4. Mrs. Amneh Theib Salem Khair.
5. Mr. Zaeid ‘Ali Abdel Halim Abdullah.
6. Mr. ‘Abed ‘Odeh Abdullah.
7. Mr. Saleh Hussein Saleh.
8. Mr. Najeh Daoud Abdullah.
9. Mr. Mufid Mahfouz Salem Abu Khair.
10. Mr. Abdullah Mahmud Mohammad Abu Khair.
11. Mr. Hatem Abdullah Mahmud Abu Khair.
12. Mr. Suleiman Abdel Hamid Abdullah.
Deir Ballut village is located about 15 km west of the city of Salfit and about 3 km east from the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line). The village spread across an area of 11,020 dunums, out of which 391 dunums constitute the built-up area. Most of the village’s lands is designated to agriculture use and is planted with vines, olives, almonds, and citrus trees. Most of the Palestinian families in the village have agricultural lands, and depend on it as a source of income.
Furthermore, Deir Ballut has already lost some of its lands when two Illegal Israeli settlements, Peduel and Har Alei Zahav east of the village were established some years ago. Both settlements consumed 237 dunums, about 2% of the village’s total area and settled by 1100 Israeli Settlers. See table 1 & map 1:
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Settlement Name
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Date. Establishment
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Settlement Area-Dunums
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Area Occupied from Deir Ballut Village
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Population
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Peduel
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1984
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539
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20
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1168
|
|
Har Alei Zahav
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1983
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488
|
217
|
450
|
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Total
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1027
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237
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1618
|
|
ARIJ Database 2009
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It is worth mentioning that the 11020 dunums that forms Deir Ballut Village were classified according to the Oslo Agreement of 1995 signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to area ‘B’ 585 Dunums (5.3 %) where the remaining land area, a total of 10435 dunums of Deir Ballut village lands were classified as area ‘C’ (94.7 %) where all the agricultural lands, the open spaces areas and lands reserved for future expansion of the village’s built-up area exist, moreover the local residents of Deir Ballut cannot build on their own lands located in Area ‘C’ as they are required to obtain building permits from the Israeli Civil Administration that has complicated procedure policy regarding Palestinian construction in are ‘C’.
Map 1: location of the threatened Palestinian houses
The suffering of Deir Ballut residents have no limits where the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall stretches through their village along with the nearby villages of Az Zawiya and Rafat, which altogether trapped in an enclave by the Israeli Segregation Wall. A total of 19.648 km length of the Segregation Wall will surround the three villages from all directions, east, west, north and south, eventually entrapping and isolating more than 24000 dunums from the surrounding Palestinian communities.
To Conclude
The Israeli demolishing campaign against the Palestinian houses in Deir Ballut comes as an introduction to what is to come or awaits the Palestinian communities trapped by the Israeli Segregation Wall starting with more restrictions on movement, and on construction, and on using the land that is for many the sole mean of income and even though that all the Israeli doings are in violation of the international law and humanitarian law Israel remains persistent in their action and their policy in the occupied Palestinian territory.•Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention indicated 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.
•Article 53 of the same convention provides 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.’
•Furthermore, Art. 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 also provides: In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.
•Also, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads: ‘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.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
