The Israeli occupation forces two citizens to self-dismantle their commercial facilities after being notified of the removal in the city of Qalqilya

• Violation: Self-demolition as a result of notices to remove two commercial facilities.
• Location: Qalqilya city.
• Violation Date: 24/11/2020.
• Perpetrator: the so-called Israeli Civil Administration.
• Affected persons: Mr. Rafiq Nazzal and Muhammad Abu Hamed.

Violation details:

In the evening hours of Thursday, November 19, the Israeli occupation forces, accompanied by the so-called Construction Inspector of the Civil Administration, stormed the eastern neighborhood of the city of Qalqilya, and issued notices to demolish and remove two commercial facilities, built of tinplate panels on metal poles.

The facilities targeted by the occupation are located at the main eastern entrance of the city of Qalqiliyia near an Israeli military camp which was set up there during the eighties of the last century, and, nowadays, this camp carries the name the District Coordination Office (DCO).

It is noteworthy that the “construction inspector” of the occupation affixed two military notices to the wall of the installations, which came under the title “An order to remove a new building” based on the new military order No. 1797, stipulating the self- demolition and removal of the target facilities within 96 hours of issuance of the notice, otherwise, the demolition would be carried out by the occupation bulldozers and the owners should pay a high demolition bill.

On Tuesday, 11/24/2020, citizens were forced to demolish their facilities themselves for fear of paying a high demolition costs.

The following table gives more information on this case:

In his testimony to LRC field researcher Mr. Muhammad Abu Talib, 61 years old, said the following:

” The targeted barrack was the only source of income for my family, in light of the restrictions imposed by the occupation on the movement of workers, and the lack of available job opportunities.  The barrack was used to sell vegetables, and after receiving the military notice abou the removal, I tried to present  a legal objection through one of the local legal institutions, but the occupation refused to consider my objection, and this is, also,  the case with the second affected citizen Mr.  Rafiq Ibrahim Nazzal. We were  ultimately prompted to dismantle the facilities by our own hands on 11/24/2020 rather than paying  high bills to the occupation authorities”.

It is noteworthy that the occupation authorities had demolished, on 20/10/2020, three commercial establishments – grape arches- located at a distance of no more than 50 meters to the east of the newly self destroyed installations, where the three arches were made of iron arches and shades, and were owned by citizens, Mahdi Radwan Musa Dawood, 28 years old, and Abdullah Abdel Fattah Ibrahim Yassin, 33 years old, after both of them had previously received a notice bearing the number 10063 asking them to self dismantle the structure within a period not exceeding 96 hours in compliance with the  Military Order No. 1797.

Self-Demolition: A policy now applied in the West Ban

The policy of self-demolition started in Jerusalem and is now spreading all over the different areas of the West Bank. The affected people are forced to demolish their unlicensed structure by their own hands. The only reason Palestinians build without permits is that the Israeli occupationgovernment rarely grants construction licenses.

Humiliation is indeed to destroy your own house by your hands knowing that your family will be homeless.  What also forces people to do so is the financial fine that will be imposed on them in case they fail at carrying out the demolition; the Israeli occupation authorities come and demolish the structure where all the costs will be billed to the affected citizen

In Jerusalem the claim under which self-demolition occurs is that Jerusalemites are under the jurisdiction of Israeli civil law. Today, the Israeli government applies the same policy in the areas of the West Bank, which are classified as area C according to Oslo Accords, as if they are under the control of Israeli civil law.