Halt of Work Notices for Six houses in Al-Khader town/ Bethlehem Governorate

• Violation: Halt of Wok notices for citizens’ houses.
• Location: Al-Khader / Bethlehem Governorate.
• Date: February 15^th 2021.
• Perpetrators: The Israeli Occupation Forces and Civil Administration.
• Victims: ‘Imad Sbaih , Jawad Zghari , Mo’ayad Sbaih , Mohammed Musa , ‘Ali Saleem , Khairi Sbaih.

Description:

 Monday, February 15^th 2021, the Israeli Occupation Forces raided Al-Khader Village, and served halt of Work notices for six houses on the pretext of building without a license.

Sameeh Sbaih told LRC: “We are at a Palestinian residential area full of Palestinian houses at Al- Al-Balou’a area in Al-Khader , my partner and I built an apartment building for investment and paid a lot of money.”

Yusra Salahat , Ali Salim’s wife said: “A vehicle from the building and organization department at the civil administration and an army force raided Khirbet Abu As-Sud and put a notice nearby our building, we tried to talk with them but they told us to hire a lawyer.”

Noteworthy, The Occupation is heavily targeting ‘Ali Saleem family, they demolished their house three times. Noting that the targeted building consists of only two rooms while a ten members family lives at it, the house is in a bad condition and contains a water leakage, the family have been experiencing the worst to protect their inherited land. An international Human Rights Organization gave them financial support to repair their house, but the Occupation Destroyed it another time.

Ali Saleem Family are waiting for the Unknown:

When The LRC field officer visited the family at their home in Um As-Sud area , they were standing up a hill looking at the Annexation and Expansion Wall , when they were asked what are they looking at , they replied : “The White Jeep that carries the officer who serves the notices comes from a metal gate at the wall , they were clearly terrified to lose their home.” Other farmers testified that a massive army force is standing nearby the gate.

The Occupation is heavily increasing human rights violations in Al-Khader town, especially at Wad As-Sud area which overviews bypass “60” that eats up vast areas of its lands. Citizens residing Wad As-Sud suffer from daily Israeli violations, and are always worried thinking which house will be notified or demolished first.

Noteworthy, Citizen Khawla Musa is a widow living at a small house, she received a notice from the occupation forces on the pretext of building without a license. Khawla supports a family, and her older children help sometimes, and the family does not have any other place to go. The notices ordered the immediate stoppage of construction works, and set March 1^st 2021, as the date of the subcommittee session in “Beit El” military court to decide the fate of the structures. The Following table shows more information about the owners:

Source: Firsthand field observation – Israeli Violations Monitoring Section – Land Research center, February 2021

 About Al-Khader village:[1]

Al-Khader village is located 4 km from the western side of Bethlehem, it is bordered by Beit Jala and Batir from the north, Hussan and Nahaleen villages from the west, Aldoha, Wadi Rahhal, Beit Jala villages from the east, and Wadi Al-Nees from the south. Its population is 11960 people in 2017. Its gross area is 8,279 donums; 184 of them are the construction area.

The Israeli colonies have despoils 29 donums from the village’s lands; two are colonies existed upon a part of the lands. The first one ” Efrat” was constructed in 1979 A.D; they have usurped 5.8 donums, and its population 7037 colonists. The second one ” Nafy Danial” eas constructed on 1982A.D; they have usurped 23 donums, and its population is 1073 colonists. A part of which is established upon the village’s lands.

The bypass roads number 60 and 375 also despoiled more than 487 donums. In addition to establishing the apartheid upon its lands which causes the demolishing of 280 donums and isolating of 5638 donums behind it. The length of this apartheid existing upon the village’s land is 2,805 meters.

The village’s lands are classified in accordance with Oslo concord into areas( A,B ,C). Area A composes 10% , Area B 6%, Area C is the greatest area and it is under the total occupation domination, and it composes 84% from the total area. The areas are clarified in donums as following:

• Area A (808) donums.
• AreaB (475) donums.
• Area C(6,996) donums.

[1] GIS-LRC