Land Research Center

of Hatem Abu Ryala in Al-Madras Street in the village of Al-Isawiya, north of Jerusalem. The municipality’s crews were accompanied by a bulldozer and military forces surrounded the place and carried out a devastating demolition of an apartment on the second floor, which caused great damage to the ground floor. As usual, the municipality's argument is always building without a permit. The demolition was sudden and under the threat of violations to force the owner to demolish the property himself, but he refused to do so, knowing that the occupation has demolished the house of Abu Ryala several times in the past years.

Photos (1-3) show the eastern side of the town, where the villages of al-Za'im and 'Anata appear on the eastern side, an illegal outpost settlement without a name.

The demolished apartment is located in the middle of a densely populated residential neighborhood, and it consists of two floors, each with an area of 200 square meters, and a construction cost of about 450,000 shekels, equivalent to about $150,000 per floor. Each floor consists of 3 rooms, bathroom, kitchen, salon and balcony. The field researcher of Land Research Center noticed the great destruction that occurred in the place. Large walls fell around the house, floors and stairs were destroyed, doors and windows were closed on the ground floor, in addition to cracks in the walls resulting from the demolition of the upper floor, and thus the upper floor was destroyed and the ground floor was blocked, because it is dangerous for housing and use.

Photos (4-7) show the extent of the destruction in the upper apartment.

It is noteworthy that the owner, Hatem Abu Ryala, suffers from hemiplegia, which makes him, in addition to his paralysis, and the high costs of construction, unable to bear the suffering of the dispersal that befell him and his family of four, two of his children, and three females, his mother, wife and mother.

The family is now scattered, and as a result of the demolition, his mother suffered a nervous breakdown and the women were attacked by the occupation forces during the demolition process. It is reported that Abu Ryala had his back broken during the demolition of his house in the past, and over the past years, the occupation has been deliberately demolishing his house until it reached about 7 times of demolition. The researcher of the Center for Land Studies noticed the very tough situation of the owner and the depression, as he did not even want to talk about the subject.

Photos (8-10) show the destruction that took place around the house and the blocking of the doors to the basement floor with the collapsed walls on the floors all around the building.

It is noteworthy that the Al-Madras neighborhood in Al-Isawiya is located to the north-east of the village. It is an area inhabited by a dense number of buildings and residents, and it has many schools that gather most of the village's students. This neighborhood has witnessed frequent demolitions over the past years.

Al-Isawiya town^[1]:

The town of Al-Isawiya is located 7 km north of the city of Jerusalem. It is bordered to the north by Shuafat and Anata, to the west by Jerusalem and Shuafat, to the east by Al-Eizariya, to the south by Jerusalem and Al-Za’im.

It consists of a mountainous and foothills lands, surrounded by settlement projects on all sides, the Hebrew University and its facilities and residences on the southeast, and Hadassah Hospital and its facilities and residences on the western side, in addition to the confiscation of large areas of the village’s land, and the presence of the separation wall on its lands from the eastern and northern sides, which It separated it from its natural Palestinian surroundings, and it is worth noting that demolitions are repeated almost daily in the village, in the inhabited neighborhoods and on marginal lands alike.

Its total area is 9,419 dunums, of which 637 dunams are the building area of the village.

The occupation confiscated an area of (2305) dunams of its lands, as follows:

The colonies looted from the village lands an area of (1019) dunams, which are:

2 - Bypass roads looted (641.5) dunums for the Roads No. 1 and (437).

3- the separation wall looted 44 dunums, and its length was 443 meters.

4- The occupation army camps looted (600) dunams

[1] Source: GIS Unit - Land Research Center.

This report was published as part of Project activities: 

“Supporting Marginalized Communities in Jerusalem through Legal Aid and advocacy" 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of Land Research Center and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the project donor; the EU

إخلاء المسؤولية: الآراء ووجهات النظر الواردة في هذا التقرير هي آراء ووجهات نظر مركز أبحاث الأراضي ولا تعكس بالضرورة وجهات نظر أو مواقف الجهة المانحة للمشروع؛ الاتحاد الاوروبي