Land Research Center

The Khalis family was forced to demolish their house on the evening of February 1, 2022. Owner Ahmed Abdel Hakim Mahmoud Khalis self-demolished his house, after the Ministry of Interior issued a demolition order and gave the family only 4 days to do. The house was bulldozed by Its owner to avoid demolishing the Ministry of Interior and fining the owner a financial violation of 100,000 shekels (33,000 dollars) after it cost them more than 120,000 shekels (40 thousand dollars) to build.

The house consists of 3 rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen on an area of 110 square meters, and it is under construction, and it was supposed to be a home for Ahmed Al-Khalis, twenty-five years old, in order to have his family and stability like other citizens, but the occupation deprived him of this goal and this dream.

The targeted structure during the demolition

Ahmed Khalis and his father expressed the great trouble in collecting money and selling gold in order to complete the construction of the house, and they said that they are not ready to venture again without the presence of help from all concerned parties, and as for Ahmed’s future, in this case he may postpone the marriage because of what it cost him to build a house, and because of his having to rent an apartment at any time, he is not able to afford it.

The family was psychologically hurt by what happened to them, and they expressed their thanks to their neighbors for standing by them, which eased the impact, and they stated that they (they are not the first family and they are not the last, and they wish nothing like this would happen with other residents of Silwan and Jerusalem, and if I was the only one I would be happy, but this is a continuous process that will cost the Palestinians a lot).

The Demolition notice serves by the occupation municipality to Khalis family

Silwan village is located to the south of the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, it is considered the village most exposed to daily Judaization from settlement institutions concentrated in it. In addition to the demolition of the house, a lot of the residents’ house is leaked there through purchase, acquisition and forgery to control the village and ethnically cleanse it, in addition to the continuous excavation operations under the houses of the village in the Al-Bustan neighborhood and other places. Neighborhoods are actually threatened with displacement.