Israeli Administrative Demolition Orders for Three Houses in East Jerusalem

On the 15th of December 2015, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem handed out administrative orders to demolish a Palestinian building in Jabal Al Mukabir town, south of  Jerusalem city.

Silwan Information Center revealed that the administrative order targeted a Palestinian building consist of three apartments, each apartment area about 130 square meters, and owned by Al Haj Khalil Alayan and his sons, included the family of the Palestinian martyr; Baha Alayan.

The Settlement Monitoring Department at the Applied Research Institute- Jerusalem (ARIJ) received a photocopy of the  demolition order, and noted that the Israeli Authorities handed two different orders, one targeted the whole building (three apartments) while the second targeted one of the apartment in the building, which owned by the family of the martyr; Baha Alayan.

Photocopy for the demolition order

According to the Israeli orders, the Israeli Authorities informed the owners of the building, that the building were built without a permit from the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem, and they must stop any construction in the building, and to submit for a license  otherwise Their building will be demolished.

Usually, the Israeli Authorities demolished the targeted houses within several days or weeks after they handed out the orders.  

The systematic policy of Demolition of the Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem constitute one of the Israeli policies that aimed to push the city’ residents   away from the City

Palestinians in Jerusalem city are Legitimate Targets for the Israeli Authorities

After Israel occupied the Palestinian territory in the year 1967, it took control over the eastern part of the city, and imposed methodic strategies and procedures against the Palestinians, where they occupied their lands, and used the land to build the illegal Israeli settlements, outposts, and many other projects that will change the demographic status in the holy city, to the interest of the Israeli settlers who move to live the city.

Furthermore, in 2002, the Israeli Authorities decided to construct the segregation wall, under the claim of “protect state of Israel”, but the main reason behind the construction of the segregation wall was to capture more Palestinian lands and  to change the demographic status in the city to achieve “The Greater Jerusalem”, by making the population of the settlers “Jews” more than Palestinians.

 According to the Israeli Jerusalem master Plan “2000” and in parallel to the construction of the Segregation wall, three Israeli settlements blocs; Gush Etzion in the south, Ma’ale Adumim in the east and Giv’at Ze’ev in the north, to be within the proposed Jerusalem city borders according to the aforementioned plan.

Not only the segregation wall targeted the Palestinians and their land, also the Israeli Occupation Authorities imposed a number of racist policies on the Palestinians, by preventing them from building houses or any other structures, while on the other side they allowed the Israeli settlers to occupied the Palestinian houses, especially in the old city of Jerusalem and around the area of Al Aqsa mosque. And to encourage the Israeli settlers to live in  Jerusalem city, the Israeli Government allocated lavish fund for the construction in the city.   

Only 7% of Jerusalem Building Permits Go to Palestinian Neighborhoods

On the 7th of December 2015, the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” published a report revealed that “only 7% of Jerusalem building permits go to Palestinian neighborhoods”[1], and the rename permits go to construct new housing units in the illegal Israeli settlements in Jerusalem Governorate. According to the report, in the year of 2014, the Israeli Authorities issued 3,238 building permits in Jerusalem, only 188 were issued in the Palestinian neighborhoods. Furthermore, in the last five years, the Israeli Authorities issued about 11,603 building permits, only 878 of which were for Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem city. This permits it’s not enough for the Palestinians who lives in the occupied east Jerusalem, and for that, they forced to build their houses or any other structures they needs without waiting the permits form the Israeli Authorities, since the permits procedures are sophisticated and most often the request will be denied.

The Israeli Authorities forced Palestinians to build “illegal” houses according to “Haaretz” report, where the Palestinians must pay very large sums in levies and taxes, which the Israeli settlers did not pay, since the Israeli government shared the sums with the contractor, and the home buyer, who can also get a mortgage.   

According to ARIJ data base, the Israeli Authorities, since the year of 2000, had issued about 23,844 demolition orders, under the claim of lacking building permits. More than that  and in the same period of time, the Israeli bulldozers demolished about 1,384 houses, for the same aforementioned claim.” See table 1 & 2.

Table No.1: the Israeli demolition orders

Table No.2: the demolished houses

As a matter of facts, the Palestinian population in Jerusalem governorate (J1 & J2), reach to 404,165 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2013[2], while the Israeli settlers population in Jerusalem Governorate exceeds 300,000 settlers. Therefore, the Israeli authorities doing its best to strangulate the Palestinian Jerusalemites in all life aspects just to keep the demographic equilibrium for the interest of Its own.

To conclude

Since 1967, the Palestinians in all over the occupied Palestinian territory suffered from the Israeli procedures against them, where the Israeli Authorities targeted the Palestinians with the military orders to confiscate their land, demolish their houses, and also uproot the trees, under several claims, such as, close military area, firing zone, state land, security status, etc.

All of the Israeli procedures and measures in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal and inconsistent with the International law rules and the United Nations Security Council Resolutions such as 237 (1967), 271 (1969), 446 (1979),  452 (1979) ,465 (1980).

• Resolution 446 March 22, 1979 calls on Israel to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories"
• Also the resolution 452 of the 1979 “calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab Territories since 1967 including east Jerusalem.
• United Nation Security Council Resolution 452 of 1979: 'Calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab occupied Territory since 1967, including Jerusalem.'
• Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949: 'the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the Territory it occupies.'
• Articles 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention 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.
• Art. 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 also provides: 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;.
• Article 53 of the same convention provides that 'any destruction by the Occupying power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or other public authorities or social or cooperative organizations is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.'
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 13: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.

[1] http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.690403

[2] http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/512/default.aspx?tabID=512&lang=ar&ItemID=961&mid=3265&wversion=Staging

Prepared by:  
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem