The Jewish Municipality of occupied Jerusalem demolishes a housing unit in the old city and forces the owner to pay demolition expenses
January 2002
Background to the new violation
Type of violation: demolition of a housing unit
Type of construction: an addition to an old Palestinian house . The total area of the destroyed addition is 70 m2. It served as a housing unit for a Palestinian family derived from the main family.
Name of owner: Mohammed Yaser Shaker Ibrahim, 34 years old.
Demolition justification: Building without license.
Number of family members: 3 ( including husband, wife and five and half years old daughter).
Date of construction: 1999
Date of demolition: 21/1/þ2002þ-þ02þ-þ06
Demolition circumstances
The son marries and adds a housing unit:
The family of Ibrahim has been living in an old house located in Burg Laqlaq since many generations ( See house picture). As the family was getting bigger, Mohammed, who got married in 1996, was obliged to add one room, a small hall, a kitchen and water circle with a total area of 70 m2 to his father's house. Mohammed did this to reduce overcrowding in his father's house which was inhabiting 18 persons at that time. Off course, He added the extension without obtaining a building license from the Municipality after he had failed to get such one despite all the efforts he exerted in this regard. The refusal to give him a permit was part of the Israeli policy denying the Palestinians the right to build or renovate houses in Jerusalem and, at the same time, giving the Israeli colonists all the encouragement and incentives to do so.
The municipality asks the owner to demolish his house by his own hands
In an interview with LRC field worker, Mohammed gave the following account:
" The municipality had earlier sent me a warning asking that I had to demolish the house by my self. This house was the only shelter to live in with my house and daughter. When I refused to follow suit, about 15 police and army officers came to my house on January 20th, a day before actual demolition was carried out, and started to inspect the flat and take pictures of it. Then, I realized that the demolition was becoming soon, especially after the layer's attempts to get license were in vain".
The demolition is performed
On Monday, January 21st, 2002, at 6 AM, large numbers of Israeli military and police forces estimated at 500 members closed all the roads and entrances leading to Burg Laqlaq area and prevented citizens from approaching. Some soldiers took to the roofs of houses and climbed the walls of the old city, while Romanian workers hired by the municipality started to evacuate the furniture from the targeted flat.
The workers used manual demolition and digging tools in their attack against the flat. The demolition process lasted for almost three hours.
In another interview with LRC field worker, Mohammed' wife said amid tears:
" They are monsters who have no mercy. They destroyed the whole structure and raised it to the ground. This crime was carried out by more than 500 personnel in front of our eyes. We were unable to do any thing to stop it".
After the demolition process was completed, the municipality imposed a fine of 10 000 NIS on the owner as wages for the workers who knocked down his house. This measure is viewed by the owner as a financial punishment because he refused an early municipality notice to demolish the house with his own hands.
Owners of three houses situated in the same area recently received notices similar to the one received by Mohammed in which the municipality asked them to demolish their houses with their own efforts. Otherwise, they had to face the same situation as Moahmmed's.
The three owners are:
1. Asa'd Sharif;
2. Hazem Sharif;
3. Shaker Salim, the grandfather of Mohammed whose house I under discussion in this case study.
The threatened three houses are amongst a new list of ten houses all located in Burg Laqlag and planned to be demolished by the municipality.
Burg Laqlaq area is located in the north eastern corner of the old city of Jerusalem. It is part of the densely populated Islamic quarter. The total area of Burg Laqlaq is 10 dunums, surrounded Bab Al- Asbat (Lions Gat) in the eastern part of the wall and Bab Al- Zahera ( Herod's Gate) in the northern part of the wall. The area over looks the Haram Al- Sharif compound to the south, Rokfler museum to the north and Mounts of Olives and Scopus to the east.
The Israeli ministries of Infrastructure and Antiquities upon decision from smaller cabinet started a wide scale excavation campaign at the site looking for Jewish objects. This process entails the demolition of ten Palestinian houses as mentioned above ( three of the owners already received notices and one flat demolished ).
This plan was directly drawn-up by the current minister of Tourism Bani Iyalon who is considered the chief supporter of Jewish extremist colonization organizations headed by Atarit Kohanim which persistently tries to get foot holds in every corner of the old city. So far, its members managed to seize dozens of homes and properties in 60 nuclei in the Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters of the old city.
The on going excavation campaign came as a preliminary step towards the establishment of at least 200 housing units for exclusive Jewish use in Burg Laqlaq area. Ariel Sharon who was the minister of Housing at the time decided this construction plan in 1990. The plan aims at controlling this sensitive area and the two most important gates of the old city, Bab Al -Asbat ( Lions Gate) and Bab Al- Azahera ( Herod's Gate).
This Israeli project is considered, in particular, an Israeli penetration of the Islamic quarter which is relatively free of colonization nuclei. It is, also, sensitive in two ways: firstly, in strengthening security in the old city and, secondly, in bringing between 500-600 colonists into the old city which, consequently, will create a demographic change in Bab Huta for the benefit of Israeli colonists at the expense of Palestinian citizens.
In case this project was completed, it will form the second largest colonialist block in the old city after Maghareba quarter ( Jewish quarter).
Waqf land
The Islamic Awqaf (Endowment affairs) authorities in Jerusalem confirmed that the Burg Laqlaq land is totally waqf land and contains Islamic and Byzantine antiquities. The Israeli government prevents Palestinians from building, renovating or extending already existing houses in the area under the pretext that the land is an archeological site. In the meanwhile, The Israeli authorities destroyed large areas of archeological importance to make room for the construction of Jewish quarters as had happened in Maghareba quarter of the old city.
Two previous demolitions
On 26/8/1996, Jerusalem municipality demolished the only center for Palestinian disabled in the old city which was built in Burg Laqlaq by Canadian government funding. During the demolition process, municipality bulldozers.
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