Demolition of a factory for concrete blocks in Bartaa

Violation: demolishing a factory

Date: 11/03/2015

Location:  Barta'a village/ Jenin governorate

Perpetrators: Israeli occupation army

Victims:  Citizen Jabir Qabha

Details:

 A massive force from the Israeli occupation army accompanied by a military dozer on March 11, 2015 raided the area of al-Khalleh from the southern side of Barta'a village, which is isolated behind the apartheid wall.

The force then embarked on demolishing a factory for concrete blocks that is still under construction, claiming it unlicensed within area classified C according to Oslo Accords. The factory belongs to citizen Jabir Qabha and his four sons; this business was supposed to be a main source of income for five families of 22 members including 10 minors. Noteworthy, the aforementioned families got their agricultural lands confiscated and workshops demolished in 2006 under the same pretext.

Mr. Qabha told a researcher from Land Research Center that the factory had a total area of 360m2 with a total cost of 400,000INS ($100,000)

It should be marked that Jabir previously received a stop-work order on his factory in May 2014; the citizen then submitted a plea to Israel Supreme Court to halt the order.  The citizen got a precautionary decision to halt the order and started to complete all licensing procedures but the occupation stalled issuing a building permit for him. As a result, his factory was demolished.

The following table lists information about the affected families due to demolition:

Source: Field Observations – Monitoring Israeli Human Rights Violations- Land Research Center -2015

It should be marked that the village of Barta'a witnessed a systematic targeting by the Israeli occupation since 15 years; many public facilities and structures got demolished alongside the village's infrastructure .

The demolition intensity was focused on three areas in the village known as al-Khalleh (from the west), Khor el-Dab'a (from the east) and the western area adjacent to the occupied lands of 1948.

The chairman of Barta'a village council Mr. Ghassan Qabha to a researcher from Land Research Center the following: "  since 2010, Barta'a witnessed around 128 stop-work and demolition orders on houses, agricultural and industrial structure and public facilities;  17 structures were reported demolished until today"

The Village of Barta’a: 

The village of Barta’a is located 30 kilometers west of the city of Jenin. The closest town to it is Ya'bad located 1 kilometers east of it. Three small sherbets surround the village including Khirbet Barta’a, Khirbet Abduallah Younis and Khirbet Al Mintar.

The Israeli Racist Isolation Wall surrounds the villages from its eastern and southern directions leading to its separation from the West Bank.

The area of its Master Plan is around 3,500 dunums while the total area of the village is 21,000 dunums. Its population (according to the village council) is 3900 most of them are from the Qabha clan. 
 

Prepared by
 The Land Research Center
LRC