Violation: issuing 53 demolition notifications.
Location: Beit Hanina and Silwan.
Date: February 2010.
Violators: the Israeli Municipality in the Occupied City and the Israeli Occupation Internal Affairs Court.
Victims: the following table provides details of the victims:
|
Name
|
Location
|
Number of residents
|
Area (m2)
|
Family members
|
notes
|
|
Sunnuqrut, Sharabati, Al Ju’ba, Miswada, Halawani, Al Salayma, Al Nabilsi, Salah, Al Qawasmi, At Tawil, Hamada, Mahfouz families
|
Beit Hanina
|
32
|
2000
|
195
|
Mahfuoz Building
|
|
Ad Dajani, ‘Abdin, Salhab, Badir, Az Zughayir, Amro families
|
Beit Hanina
|
10
|
900
|
64
|
The Pearl Building – property of Mazin abu Aisha
|
|
Al ‘Abbasi, Al Shiyokhi, As Salfiti, Al Haymouni, ‘Alqam, Miswada, Ghanem, Al Salayma, At Tawil families
|
Silwan
|
11
|
1000
|
100
|
The Demolition orders do not have any names
|
|
Total
|
53
|
3900
|
359
|
|
|
DMahfouz Building is threatened of demolition:
On February 9, 2010, the Israeli Occupation Central Court issued an eviction and demolition order against Mahfouz Building in Beit Hanina. The Court gave the residents 10 days to comply with the order that also described the building as ‘illegal’.
The building was built in 2002; it is formed of 6 stories and contains 32 apartments. The apartments were bought by 32 Jerusalemite families and cost each family 60~70 thousand US dollars. 195 people, the total number of residents, are anxiously waiting for the mysterious future of their only shelter. The owner had previously received a demolition order on August 28, 2008; the same order was renewed on June 2009.
Picture 1: The building of resident Mahfouz in Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem city
Picture 2: eviction & demolition order issued against Mahfouz Building
The Pearl Building:
The construction of the building had started in 1999 and was completed in 2003. On February 14, 2010, the Israeli Court of Internal Affairs issued an eviction and demolition order against the building.
The building is located in Beit Hanina (parcel 30611, piece 106). It is a six storey building that contains 10 apartments. All of the apartments were bought by Jerusalemite families containing a total of 64 members.
On November 2007, the owner received an eviction and demolition order justified by the fact that he has not obtained a construction permit from the Municipality. Today, Abu Aisha owns nothing in the building which he sold to the various residents.
The families appealed to the Israeli courts which ruled for postponing the demolition till beyond December 1, 2009. However, the indulgence period is over. The current owners, who bought the apartments from Abu Aisha, did nothing wrong because he promised to obtain permits (which is almost impossible) and promised to compensate for the losses in case the Israelis carried out their threat.
The Israeli Court fined Mazin abu Aisha the amount of 1.3 million shekels. Nevertheless, he was incarcerated for 9 months for not being able to pay the fine.
The families engineer presented a new blueprint because the first one was rejected by the Municipality which claimed that the parking lot was small compared to the building size. However, the engineer new plan is still being studied.
11 other families face demolition threats:
On February 24, 2010, a force of the Israeli Occupation Police, Border Police, and Special Forces accompanied by a number of the Israeli Municipality in the Occupied City of Jerusalem employees broken into Wadi al Hilwa and Al ‘Abbasiyya neighborhoods in Silwan.
They distributed a total of 11 demolition orders either by sticking them on the houses doors or by breaking into houses when they had the chance.
It must be mentioned that this happens the first time in this particular area since most of the structures are built even before the rise of the ‘state of Israel’ and long before the conquest of Jerusalem.
Picture 3: a photocopy of the distributed demolition order
LRC condemns the mass distribution of demolition orders within the Occupied City with the intention of ethnically cleansing it by the removal of its Palestinian residents and reducing the percentage of the Arab residents in the city to less than 22%.
The thing clearly stated in plan 2020 implemented by the Israeli Municipality in the Occupied City of Jerusalem.
LRC deems that house demolitions and threatening is a horrific violation of the right to residency and contradicts with all the International laws especially with Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
