Land Research Center

The Occupation’s Municipality staff in Jerusalem notified Mr. Ahmed Amin Abu Al-Hawa to demolish his house (on the pretext of lacking a license) in the town of Al-Tur - Jerusalem in the Al-Hardoub area on July 28, 2021. The house consists of one floor and two adjacent apartments with an area of about 350 square meters. An apartment was demolished, and the opposite apartment was kept, which is also threatened with demolition at any moment.

Construction began in the house in 2017, as it was fully equipped to accommodate the owner’s son after marriage, and after the completion of construction and preparations to equip it with furniture. The municipality immediately, arbitrarily, notified the family that the house must be demolished directly. The owner was threatened with a fine of 100,000 shekels in the event that the municipality carries out the demolition, forcing the owner to bring a bulldozer that worked all day to demolish the intended apartment and keep the neighboring apartment, which was clearly damaged by the works Demolition. The two apartments are structurally connected which is a danger to live at the moment, in addition to the threat to demolish.

The family was affected by this demolition, as it was forced to change the place of residence for its son, in addition, the large expenses of construction and courts, which exhausted the family and which still suffers from an actual threat to demolish the rest of the building.

Ahmed Amin Abu Al-Hawa (58 years) and his family members 6. Three sons and a girl.

Self-Demolition:

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.

[If your house has been built without a building permit, then it is legal and you have to destroy it and remove the wreckage as soon as possible. You also have to take pictures of the destroyed structure and send them to the Inspection Department of the Planning and Construction Committee in the occupying municipality to verify the act. There is a fixed date regarding when you have to carry out the demolition operation and this is a red line you cannot cross. There is a second date set by the municipality court of local affairs to check if you have abided by the demolition order or not. In case you do not comply, the municipality will demolish your residence at your expense. If you cannot pay, you will be jailed, so the lesser of two evils becomes the self-demolition choice.]

At-Tur village:

At-Tur is one of Jerusalem’s oldest villages, it is located about 3 km to the east of Jerusalem city , At-Tur is bordered by As-Suwana and Al-Isawiya (north) , Jerusalem city – the old city (west), Az-Zayyem (east) and (Ash-Shayah) south , At-Tur has a population of 35,000 people (2017) .

At-Tur village has a total area of 9,200 dunums , of which (911) dunums are a built up area.

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy
This Publication has been produced with the assistance of the EU
The Contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the individual organization only , and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the EU