Land Research Center

On the morning of March 2, 2022, the Beit El Civil Administration demolished a commercial facility in Beit Hanina under the pretext of not having a license. Its owner, Mr. Akram Ahmed al-Kiswani, stated that police and army forces stormed the place and demolished the office and the facility without prior warning.

It is worth mentioning that the commercial facility is part of a cement pumps project located on Al-Ehtram Street in Wadi Al-Dam in Beit Hanina. It consists of an office, a kitchen, and a bathroom with an area of about 30 square meters, in addition to a store for light equipment. It was built a year ago at a cost of about 25 thousand shekels, or about 8 thousand US dollars. The facility is used as a headquarters for the facility owner and for the use of workers in the place.

The owner said that during the storming and demolition of the facility, the forces assaulted those present in the place, especially his son, who was beaten and arrested, and all those present were arrested for a whole day, in addition to the damages accompanying the demolition process, as the office and store were not evacuated from the stored furniture or equipment. In addition to that, the forces had sabotage the diesel tank on the site, and they steal an amount of diesel worth about 50,000 shekels, equivalent to 16,000 dollars, in addition to other damages to machinery and work tools which value exceeded 70,000 shekels, about 21,000 dollars. All of this is in addition to the facility’s owner losing his office, which affects his business and dealings with customers to the point of losing some of them, and there is also another threat to bulldoze the entire land of the facility, which has an area of about 3 acres and contains parking lots for cement pumps and heavy machinery.

Moreover, the commercial facility supports, in addition to its employees, the owner's family, which is consists of thirty people, including twelve children, and six women, who make up the owner's family and the families of his sons.

Beit El Civil Administration targets the Wadi Al-Dam area in Beit Hanina with the continuous demolition and sabotaging of commercial facilities in it. Moreover, this area, in addition to the presence of homes and residents in it, it is also considered as a mini-industrial area that contains multifunctional and commercial facilities which supports Jerusalem families and considered as an important source for their commercial and industrial and income activities. It also attracts many laborers from different areas of Jerusalem and Ramallah.