Israeli occupation dozers demolish structures, uproot trees in the Jerusalem town of At-Tur

Dozers of the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem demolished on March 30, 2016 a shack for birds and a retaining wall belonging to Jaradat family. Not only, the force uprooted five fruitful trees from around the residence.

The owner of targeted structures, Mahmoud Jaradat, told Land Research Center the following: " We , the family of Jaradat, come from the suburbs of Hebron governorate. We have been living here since the 1940s. In 2000, we built a 15 meter retaining wall around our residence, 9m² shack for birds and a 4m² storage unit (made by wood and brick)s for equipments.

He continued: "  On September 2015, a civil car accompanied by a police vehicle arrived at my place. A man, who later turned out to be the responsible of the area extending from Marry Magdalene Church to Hebrew University, asked me to present my ID; a thing that I refused to do until he introduced himself. After that, the guy left without saying anything to me"

He also added: " In the morning of March30, 2016,  50 policemen gathered in the compound of the Abraham College, that is founded opposite to our building.  The force stood still until a dozer arrived at 12:00 and demolished the shack. We got pushed and assaulted by the soldiers and my father managed to save some of the birds from the shack before the dozer reaches it. The dozer reached out the retaining wall and then moved to the shack, killing 35 birds. In the same time, five trees got uprooted because of the dozer and a storage unit with its interior of 30,000 NIS equipments got demolished as a result.

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

1. 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.”
2. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 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

1. 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.”
2. 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.”
3. 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."

Prepared by
 The Land Research Center
LRC