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The Occupation’s municipality forces Basheer family to demolish their own home in Jabal Al-Mukabir / Occupied Jerusalem

2020-05-29

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Israeli violations in the time of Corona

Friday May 29th 2020, Basheer family demolished their own home in Jabal Al-Mukabir , after being forced by the occupation’s municipality on the pretext of building without licenses, the targeted house has a total area of 85 m2 built of bricks and cement , it is a home for a family of 4 among them an elderly woman Rasmiya Al-Basheer.

Musa Basheer told LRC:

“7 years ago in 2014 , I built a house for my disabled mother , after the construction was completed , representatives of the occupation’s municipality showed up , and gave us a demolition order on the pretext of building without licenses.

Several sessions were conducted to discuss this case , they resulted In imposing a huge fine that exceeded 35,000 shekels , even now that the house was demolished we still need to pay the rest of the fine, besides the costs of lawyers and engineers.

After a series of sessions, the occupation’s court issued a demolition order. The occupation’s municipality called me and told me to demolish the house on my own, or they will implement the operation and make me pay for all the costs.”

As a result I demolished the house myself , and lost about 300 thousand shekels.

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The owner dismantles doors and windows to reduce his loss as much as it is possible , he worked all his life to build this house , and now the racist occupation forces him to demolish it.



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Noteworthy , during the last year 2019 , the occupation forced 43 people to demolish their own homes, and forced 11 people to demolish their commercial facilities.

Self-Demolition is a Crime against Humanity:

Definition: When an owner of a structure is forced to demolish his property by himself, it is called 'self demolition' or 'silent demolition'. It used to be carried out in quiet or in silence as the name suggests. But recently, due to their increased number of cases, victims have come to disclose that such type of demolition exists and that it is their only choice and speak out about the inhumanity of the Israeli occupation for forcing such a practice.

This kind of demolition is mainly imposed on Palestinians in Jerusalem in efforts to displace them and Judaize the city.

The Israeli occupation always justifies that type of demolition, which is a blatant contravention of the right to residence and a crime against humanity, on the pretext of unlicensed construction.

About Jabal Al Mukabbir: [1]

5 kilometers south Jerusalem city , Jabal Al Mukabbir is surrounded by Silwan (north, Ath Thuri (west) , Abu Dis and As-Sawahra Ash- Sharqiya (east) , As-Sawahra Al-Gharbiya (south).

Jabal Mukabbir and As-Sawahra Al-Gharbiya together have a total population of (21, 127 ) people in 2012 census-The Jerusalem academy of Israeli Studies-, Jabal Al Mukabbir has an area of 3,281 dunums , 682,7 of them are the towns built uo area.

Israeli settlements devoured 300 dunums of the town's lands:


Settlement's name

Establishment year

Area / dunums

Number of settlers

Tel Byout Ash-Sharqiya

1973

275

12,591

Nov Zion

2010

23.5

unavailable

[1] GIS-LRC


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Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

This report was prepared with EU funding, the contents of this document do not reflect positions of the European Union