On the early morning of April 14, 2015, the Israeli Occupation bulldozers and under the protection of the Israeli Police Forces stationed in Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood east of Jerusalem city and demolished four story building under the pretext of lacking building permits.
The targeted building owned by the Jerusalemite resident “Akram Abu Shalbak” who indicated that he built his demolished building in September 2014 on his private owned land. He provided that on December 2014 , the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem handed him an administrative demolition order for his his 1,200 m2 building under the pretext that it was built without Municipal permit.
Mr. Abu Shalabak added that he submitted a petition to the Israeli court in Jerusalem where it issued “halt demolition order, while the related occupation authorities demolished the building day before deadline granted by the aforementioned court to submit objections against the demolition order.
Israeli Punitive Measurements in Hizma Town
On April 10, 2015, the Israeli Army Forces stormed the village of Hizma, stormed the commercial stores on the 600 m length main road, search with its contents before enforcing their owners to close them.
Later on , an on April 13th , the Israeli forces stationed back in Hizma and starting expropriation campaign against the commercial stores in the village which resulted to losses exceeds 180,000 NIS as follows:
- The Israeli forces demolished a cement wall and a store door in addition to the confiscation of an electronic lever (140,000 NIS) owned by the local resident Mohammad Al-Asmar Al-Yabani.
- Confiscation of 22,000 NIS goods crane from the auto parts shop owned by the resident Ziad Ibrahim ‘Alman.
- Confiscation of 4 new vacuum cleaners (20,000 NIS) from As-Salam car wash station.
- Confiscation of a “stockroom” container owned by the resident Rafe’ Al-‘Afer.
Hizma is a Palestinian village located to the northeast of the city of Jerusalem. The village is populated by 7203 residents (PCBS Projections -2015). It is bordered by the Illegal Israeli settlement of Adam (Geva Binyamin), the Palestinian localities of Al Ram and Dahiet Al Barid, and the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall from its north and northwestern, from its Southside, by ‘Anata and Shu’fat Refugee Camp and the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall, and by Beit Hanina as well as the Illegal Israeli settlements of Neve Yacov, Pisgat Ze'ev, Pisgat Amir, and the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall from its west, and by the Illegal Israeli settlement of Almon (Anatot), the planned section of the Segregation Wall from its eastern side.
It is worth pointed that Hizma's village boundary exceeds to 10,394 dunums most of which is agricultural lands, as for the villages built up area it stands at 870 dunums. See Map 1
Israeli Colonial Activities in Hizma
Hizma is one of the Palestinian communities that lost many of its lands behind the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall and for the construction of Illegal Israeli Settlements. As a matter of fact Hizma had lost about (6,795 dunums) from its total area (10,394 dunums), which constitute 66% of the town total area, behind the Israeli Apartheid Segregation Wall and for the Illegal construction of the Israeli settlements.
Furthermore, four Illegal Israeli settlements built on Hizma's lands. These large urban settlements are: Neve Ya'acov, Pisgat Ze'ev, Pisgat Amir and Almon (‘Anatot) .Moreover, there is also an Illegal Israeli outpost controlling additional Palestinian lands located to the eastern part of Hizma.
Therefore the four Illegal Israeli settlements accommodate more than 60,000 Illegal Israeli settlers, and occupy an area of 6,108 dunums of lands 2351, 5 dunums comes from land confiscated from Hizma. In other words, the town of Hizma had lost 23 % of its lands for the construction of Illegal Israeli settlements.
More than that the Israeli Segregation Wall that stretches 6.2 km through Hizma’s lands isolated 4,443 dunums (43%) from the village lands behind its path. (ARIJ Database 2015).
The Israeli demolition of the Palestinian houses and expropriating their properties constitute a grave breach for the International law rules and conventions, where under the International law rules, Israel is prohibited from confiscating the Palestinian lands. The appropriation and destruction of Palestinian land is an especially serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 53, 147 of which clearly prohibits, ‘extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.''
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
