Israeli Occupation Forces notify a play field with stop-work in Salfit

Violation: stop-work notifications on play field
Location: Salfit governorate
Date: October 26, 2020
Perpetrators: Israel Civil Administration
Victims: Salfit citizens

Details:

It is reported that the Planning and Construction Sub-Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration accompanied by a force from the occupation militray raided Salfit on May 11,2020 and notified a play field with stop-work on the pretext that they were built without proper license. The targeted field is located in the area known as Al-Marahat, north of the governorate. It is specifically founded 200 meters from the city master plan and is being funded by Palestine Higher Council for Youth and Sports.

According to military order (31288), a deadline until November11, 2020 was given as a final date to complete all licensing procedures. This comes in time with the session of the Planning Committee in Beit El court to consider the status of the notified structures.

Photo 1: the stop-work notification

The notification step came after the occupation authorities targeted a parcel of land 150 away from the field, where 160 seedlings were uprooted, and other retaining walls were demolished on the claim of lacking proper building license.

According to data from Land Research Center, the field was in the leveling phase, where base course materials were laid down on 11 dunum area.

The mayor of Salfit, Abdel Karim Zubeidi said the following about the violation:

“The idea of the playing field came to serve the youth as a breather in Salfit and the neighboring cities and villages given the reality of occupation and its pressures on their psychology. The project was initiated three years ago but was halted for some reasons. Lately, it was reinitiated to include a playing field, and a park for special needs kids all on a total area of 20 dunums.

He also added:

“We are doing our best to coordinate with governorate and Jerusalem Legal Aid Center to prepare a legal file to object to the Israeli notice”

Photos 2-5: the targeted play field

About Salfit:^[1]

28 km south Nablus and 34 km north Ramallah, Salfit has a total area of 26123 dunums, of which 1700 dunums are the city’s built up area, while there are 16202 dunums of agricultural lands.

The segregation wall isolated 1920 dunums of the town’s lands.

According to the newest census conducted in 2017, Salfit has a population of 10350 people.

Families of Salfit: BaniNamra, Eshtayeh, Dahdoul, Shahin ,Madi, Aram, Salim, Zbaidiya, Yasin, Hassan, Yunis , Odeh , Jebril, Maraita, Ismael , Fatoni, Uzriel, Al-Qaisi. There are families of refugees, and they are Abid, Al- Hmidat, Abu Shameh, Al-Rumhi, Al-Sayed, Al-She’ar, Abu Zayid, Al-Dhaher, Mhaboba, Al-Daqeq, Hadad , Al-Zurba, Awad.

Oslo conventions classified the area into: