Four residential rooms demolished in Khirbet al-Tawil

Violation: destroying four residential rooms
Location: Khibet al-Tawil /Nablus governorate
Date: 20/08/2014
Perpetrators: the Israeli Planning Committee
Victims: two families from al-Tawil

Details:

For the fifth time in a period of a year, the families of citizens Anwar and Sudqi Bani Fadil have been constantly targeted through demolitions and displacement; ethnical cleansing in other words.

Around 6:30 am, a massive force of the occupation troops accompanied by the Israeli Planning Committee raided al-Tawil and leveled four residential rooms (made of clay and metal slabs) to the ground, which were built a hundred year ago.

It should be mentioned that the occupation demolished the rooms without any previous notice andor stop work orders. The pretext came, this time, under rehabilitating the houses and barns which were demolished in 2014. Noteworthy, any act of rehabilitation on structures is prohibited by the occupation and might be severely punished for.

The following table explains the demolitions aftermath:

*Source: Field Research- Monitoring Israeli Violations Team- Land Research Centre (LRC). 

A systematic war aiming at displacing indigenous:

The occupation has been targeting the Khirbet for favor of founding military camps in the area. As result, massive area of lands planted with summer and winter crops were damaged not mentioning the minefields that were planted in the location.

By the beginning of 2014, the Israeli occupation embarked demolitions on residential rooms, barns, and even, mosques under the pretext of unlicensed construction but the truth is that all violations aimed at confiscating the majority of al-Tawil and Hawud Lifjm lands for the favor of colonial expansions.

Citizen Fadil Bani Hassan, about his losses, to the LRC researcher stated that:

“on 29/03/2014, my brother and I had two houses, and pools demolished by the Israeli occupation . The interior of the rooms ended up under rubbles. Therefore, Aqraba municipality built three rooms ( made of bricks) for us but the occupation came back again and demolished them on 12/05/2014. The Red Crescent, on 14/05//2014, provided us with tents that were confiscated in the same day. Same thing happened again on 18/04/2014 when our tents were confiscated for the second time. My brother and I decided to rehabilitate houses aging hundred years to reside in but the occupation came and leveled them to the ground. Our two families (17mebmers including 12 minors) became homeless in the cold with nothing to eat or drink. Our sheep (400) started dying day after day due to the lack of a barn to shelter them in”.

Anwar also added: “I live in the area of al-Tawil since 1969 and I know no other place to go to. My kids were born and brought up here, so how come the occupation is asking me to leave? Where to? I cannot live but in here for here I was born and here I shall die”.

Land Research Center LRC sees that house demolitions contradict with all the International conventions and Humanitarian laws including:

•  Article 17 of the (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating: “Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”
• Section ‹G› of article 23 of the (1907) The Hague Conventions asserting: “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.”
• Article 53 of the Geneva Fourth Convention (1948) declaring: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”
• Section 1, Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966): “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent."

For further information about what Khirbet al-Tawil has been going through in 2014, please read through the following reports issued by Monitoring Israeli violations Team –LRC:

• The occupation serves a stop work order on an agricultural road on 05/01/2014( Ar, Eng)
• Several structures notified with stop work order on 05/01/2014 (Ar, Eng)
• Electricity and water networks notified with stop work orders on 19/03/2014 (Ar, Eng)
• A mosque and a number of agricultural structures notified with demolition on 29/04/2014 (Ar, Eng)
• The occupation targets Khirbet al-Tawil with demolition for the second time in a week on 29/04/2014 (Ar, Eng)
• The occupation transform  agricultural lands into a military camp on 15/05/2014 (Ar, Eng)
• The occupation confiscates three residential tents in Khirbet al-Tawil on18/05/2014 (Ar, Eng)

Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC