June 2002

Location: Sur Baher- south east of Jerusalem.

Introduction

Early in the morning of June 11^th, 2002, a convoy of Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers descended from the colony of  Mount Abu – Ghunim ( Har Homa) south of the city of Jerusalem heading towards the neighboring Palestinian town of Sur Baher. Immediately after their arrival, they started, under full protection of Israeli soldiers, to demolish 12 Palestinian housing units in 5 big buildings in the town. From the same colony, Israeli shells and rockets hit before the Palestinian houses in Beit Sahur and Bethlehem to the south. Months ago, Israeli bulldozers got out of this colony to demolish Palestinian houses in the neighboring village of Um Tuba as well. These aggressive and destructive actions prove that most colonies in the occupied territories have been designed to assume the role of destroying Palestinian life and future.

Demolition details

At about 07:30 AM, June 11th, 2002, large numbers of Israeli forces (border guards, special task forces, and regular conscripts) accompanied by bulldozers and big digging machines stormed the town of Sur Baher and announced it as a closed military zone. At around 08:30 AM, the Israeli bulldozers began to demolish 5 residential buildings some of which have been finished while others are still under construction. The buildings, which comprised 12 housing units with a total area of 1990 M2,  are located in the areas of Rukbat Al- Qureis and Khalet Al- Daraja of Sur Baher. A number of business stores, garages, walls and wells, which were attached to the buildings, were also destroyed as part of this process.

The demolition attack was so surprising that the house owners didn’t authorize any lawyers to defend their cases since they new nothing about the Israeli intention to demolish their houses. Even, a house owner with a name of Imad Dabash was watching from his balcony while the Israeli bulldozers were demolishing the houses of his neighbors, the family of Abu Kaf and Ramuni, without having a clue that the same bulldozers would turn in few minutes against his own house.

The Israeli occupation forces, represented by the Jewish municipality of Jerusalem, were so irresponsible and indifferent towards Palestinian owners and their properties that they didn’t show any court documents or any demolition orders against targeted Palestinian houses before the actual demolition took place.

Israeli motives behind demolition

In a number of interviews with LRC filed worker, residents of Sur Baher believed that the latest round of house demolitions, which were carried out amidst threats of further similar actions,  didn’t come as part of organizational or planning schemes on part of Israeli authorities, rather, the  targeted houses are located opposite hundreds of newly constructed Jewish apartments  in the colony of Har Homa, a reality unaccepted by Jewish occupants. For this particular reason, a number of Palestinian houses were previously destroyed in the near by Um Tuba village.

The town residents, also, believe that the on going demolitions are a collective punishment against their town for no offence except its location as a passage way for West Bankers coming to Jerusalem from south, mainly, Bethlehem, Beit Sahur and Obideyyia. Therefore, the current campaign aims at stopping Palestinian settlement expansion and preventing Palestinians from entering Jerusalem. To serve the latter purpose, the Israeli army four months ago established a military road separating between the southern edges of Jerusalem and the West Bank and set- up a constant military observation post in Al- Darajah hilltop overlooking the southern and eastern surroundings of Su Baher. At the same location and during the Gulf War of 1991, The Israeli army erected a rocket-launching base there.

Taxes and no services

Residents of Sur Baher declared to LRC field worker that in 1998 the town paid 12 million NIS as taxes to Jerusalem municipality. In turn, the town residents are deprived of basic services such as roads, sewage and road lights. In addition, they are not allowed to build houses on their private owned land for many pretexts.

Israeli demolitions in Sur Baher on 11.06.2002 by owner name, location, number of flats, number of rooms and number of occupants including children:

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