Three houses demolished in Beit Hanina. Three others waiting demolition
October 2001
The Israeli occupation forces demolished 3 houses in Al-Ashqarieh neighborhood in Beit Hanina on Sep. 11th, 2001. The houses were demolished under the pretext of un-licensing. With this demolition, the total number of houses demolished in Beit Hanina since the beginning of the year rose to 16.
The three houses were among six houses ordered to be demolished by the Olmert’s municipality’s court of local affairs, only one day before the actual demolition took place. By so doing, the Israeli authorities gave no chance to house owners to follow due process. This act comes as a continuation of the Israeli racist policy against Palestinian presence in Jerusalem. Olmert’s municipality takes advantage of any political or security developments to strike against Palestinians in Jerusalem by demolishing as many houses as possible.
1. The house of Mr. Ramadan Ahmad Bader: demolished by mistake
At 8:30, Sep. 11th, 2001, a huge Israeli military force estimated at 400-500 soldiers sealed off the Ashqarieh quarter in Beit Hanina. Israeli soldiers broke the main door of Ramadan’s house and forced their way into it. Present at the house were Mrs. Taghrid, 32 years old and Ramadan’s wife, along with her two- year old youngest son, Mustafa. During the aggression, the father was at work and his sons and daughters were at schools. The attacking Israeli soldiers used police dogs to scare the mother and force her to flee out of the house.
In an interview with LRC field worker, the scared mother said the following:
“ I cannot imagine that terrible dog whom I will never forget all my life. The dog pulled me out of the house with my child. I was detained with my child in open air and under son all through the demolition process. No appropriate clothes, food or water were given to us. At 9:30 AM, three bulldozers started to pull down our house. After the bulldozers had knocked down most of the house- 6 rooms with a total area of 260 m2- they stopped action and withdrew towards the house of our neighbor who is a member of the family of Abu- Nab”.
The lawyer of Bader’s family who was present at the scene asked the municipality officials who were monitoring the demolition process: why did you stop?
The answer came: there was a mistake, Bader’s house was not the right one !?
They left the house semi- demolished, unsafe and gave a blind eye to the crime they had done.
The owner of the house Mr. Ramadan Bader gave the following account to LRC field worker:
“ We built the house in 1992. We started to pay due taxes, including property taxes to the municipality. We applied for a building license but got a refusal for the area of building was classified as “green area”, that is, not possible to be used by Palestinians. We paid 30 000 NIS as fine. Now, we’ve lost our house whose construction costs are estimated at 200 000 US dollars . Moreover, I paid 3000 US $ to the lawyer and 15 thousands dollars as losses in furniture. After all, they demolished the house and the entire family who is formed of 9 members, including 7 children, became homeless”.
2. The house of Mr. Bahija Ahmad Abu- Nab: Demolition and robbery
The occupant of the house, Mrs. Aisha Abu-Nab, who lives in her mother’s house with her family, said the house was constructed in 1993 without license under the pressure of need. As a result, the municipality court imposed a fine of 21000 NIS, which was totally paid as monthly allotments.
LRC field worker interviewed Mrs. Aisha. She gave the following remarks:
“ On Tuesday morning, Sep. 11th, 2001, I left the house with my husband. At 10:30, a neighbor informed me by phone that there were bulldozers demolishing my house. I rushed home only to find a pile of rubble. They demolished my house without prior warning. They carried out their crime in our absence and after breaking the locker. 20 thousands Dinars of gold were stolen from my house by Israeli soldiers during the break in”.
It is worth mentioning that the family had paid 100 000 US $ to build the house.
Strangely enough, Israeli laws give house owners a chance to re-apply for building license. If failed, the court must issue a final decision and the owner should be informed of it. After that, a two- week period is given to house owner to carry out the demolition and if he failed to do so, the municipality authorities will do it on his behalf any time at the end of the two- week period.
In fact, what the municipality authorities had done was a clear violation of its own law. Clearly, these acts of demolition were based on political and racist decisions rather than on technical or urban planning considerations.
3. The house of Mrs. Meriam Jaradat: Demolition with no mercy
On Sep. 11th, 2001, at 11 AM, the Olmert’s municipality bulldozers demolished the house of Mrs. Meriam Ahamd Jaradat, 31 years, comprised of 2 rooms with a total area of 50 m2. She used to live in the house with her husband and 3 children. The house was built in 1997.
In an interview with LRC field worker, Mrs Jaradat said:
“ In 1997, an Israeli court imposed a fine of 6000 NIS against us for building without license. We paid the whole amount later. In Feb., 2001, they fined us another 6000 NIS. Out of this amount we had paid 800 NIS. On Tuesday, we were surprised by Israeli bulldozers destroying our house without previous warning”.
The three families recalled with deep pain how their children left homes during early hours heading to schools and when they turned back they found their homes razed to the ground, and their toys and belongings crushed under rubble.
The three demolished houses are located in al- Ashqarieh quarter in Beit Hanina north west of Rachis Shu’fat colony which was established in 1992 on more than 200 hectares seized from the land of Shu’fat and Lifta.
Nowadays, the colony comprises more than 2300 housing units built by financial support from Canadian Jewry. Initially, the land was confiscated in 1972 for the establishment of a public park. Then, the municipality planned a stadium there, but Jewish rabbis who feared that Arabs could use the place on Saturdays rejected this idea.
Quickly, the municipality, under pressure from the same rabbis, decided to change the land from a green zone into a yellow zone, thereby, allowing Jewish building on it. The Israeli authorities went further on in their apartheid policies against Palestinians by preventing them from building in the same area allowed for Jewish construction. New sophisticated and costly building procedures were introduced and applied against Palestinians which made it almost impossible to get a building license.
Most house demolition cases in Jerusalem are done for the benefit of neighboring Jewish colonies. For example, the failure to sell out housing units in some Jewish colonies has been, according to Israeli sources, due to the closeness of Palestinian homes to these colonies. As part of this thinking, a number of Palestinian houses were demolished in the village of Um Tuba, south of Jerusalem for they were blamed for the un-selling of Jewish housing units in the nearby colony of Har Homa.
Another example was the recent demolition of several Palestinian homes in Shu’fat refugee camp which were closed to Giva’at Zeiv colony in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem.
The discovery of archeological sites doesn’t stop Israeli colonialist activities as long as the discovered places are non- Jewish. This policy is very well manifested in Rachis Shu’fat colony where Canaanite, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic excavations have been discovered. Nevertheless, Israeli bulldozers continued to destroy these sites to make room for new Jewish construction.
Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have confiscated large areas of Palestinian land in Jerusalem as green areas only to be changed later as yellow areas for exclusive Jewish use.
The colonies of Neve Ya’cub, Bisgat Zeiv, Ma’ale Adumim, Gilo, the French Hill, Giva’at Shabira and Har Homa are all built on land previously classified by the Israeli authorities as “ Green Zones”.
LRC had documented the demolition of 53 houses, including 9 barracks, in Jerusalem since the beginning of this year.
These demolitions represent a flagrant violation of the Palestinians’ right to proper housing and constitute an ill-legal and collective punishment contrary to property rights stipulated in Fourth Geneva Convention. These acts mount to the level of war crimes whose perpetrators must be pursued and put on trial.
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