Land Research Center

Israeli violations in the time of Corona

Tuesday June 2^nd 2020, Farah family carried on demolishing a segment from their house in Beit Hanina neighborhood, complying to an order issued by the occupation’s municipality , on the pretext of building without licenses from the occupation.

The demolished segment composes of a bedroom and a bathroom with a total area of 30 m² , this segment  was attached to a 70 m² house that belongs to the family, and owned  by the father Naim Farah (the house is inhabited by 11 people , 3 of them are children.)

Owner Naim Farah told LRC:

“I built this house 19 years ago, to live in it with my family, but representatives from the occupation’s municipality showed up and gave me a demolition order on the pretext of building without licenses , they also imposed on me three high fines that I had to pay, in addition to the costs of the lawyer and engineer , all this came after I applied for licenses to build an additional segment to the house.

In September 5^th 2018, the occupation’s municipality demolished my house without any preceding military orders , so I built a new house in its place , with an area of 70m² , then I added a new segment with an area of 30 m² (bedroom and a bathroom) to give my family more space.

During the construction phase , the occupation municipality showed up and took pictures of the building , then wrote a demolition notice and gave it to us before withdrawing.”

Noteworthy, in 2019 the occupation forced 43 people to demolish their own houses , and other 11 citizens were forced to demolish their facilities.

Self- demolition, a crime against humanity:

Definition: Forcing the owner to demolish his own construction, this crime is not new to the Israeli occupation, but used to happen secretly , victims were ashamed to reveal that they demolished their own properties, but as such cases increased, victims started to speak against the Israeli crimes.

This crime is very popular in Jerusalem, Israeli occupation is attempting to clear out the city for their colonial planes, they always use their known pretext (the building is unauthorized) and they give the owner a dead line to carry out the demolition, in case the owner breaks the deadline, The Israeli bulldozers demolish his home and force him to pay the costs of the demolition, in case he doesn't, They arrest him.

About Beit Hanina:[1]

5 km north Jerusalem, Beit Hanina is surrounded by Bir Nabala (north), Beit Hanina down town (Bait Hanina town was divided to two parts by the Apartheid wall Upper Beit Hanaina and Beit Hanina down town) (west), Hizma (east) and Shufat (south). Beit Hanina has a population of 33,617 people in 2009, and an area of (8,877) , (3,341) dunums are a built up area.

• The occupation confiscated over 3700 dunums for the following purposes:

Illegal colonies confiscated (3064) dunums as follows:

• Bypass roads (50 +60) confiscated over 482 dunums.
• Apartheid wall took over 50 dunums and has a length of (987) meters.
• Occupation's military camps took over (103) dunums.

[1] GIS-LRC