Land Research Center

On Tuesday, May 17, 2022, the Ministry of Interior and Finance bulldozers completely destroyed a parking lot, a car wash, and an agricultural nursery licensed by the municipality, belonging to the citizen Samer Al-Shweiki, on an area of 6,200 dunums after it had been completely built: infrastructure, sewers, a railing, a gate and a sign. All that is necessary, on the pretext that it poses a threat to the security of the train station, and that the site is classified as an open area, which caused the investment a material loss of more than six hundred thousand shekels, or about two hundred thousand US dollars.

 show the location of the facility from the main street in Shuafat

It is noteworthy that the owner of the commercial facility supports a family of 6 people, four children, including two girls and the wife. Al-Shweiki completely lost his source of livelihood, in addition to three workers who used to work for him, each with a family to support.

The owner stated the following to the filed researcher of the Land Research Center:

“I was not notified of any decision about the facility. The place was stormed by forces and Caterpillar bulldozers, which immediately proceeded to destroy the entire place, and I was threatened not to approach the place or else I will be shot, and I was told that the place is close to a settlement and poses a danger to it”.

 show the extent of the destruction in the targeted site

The railway company had previously tried to impose underground parking lots on the landowners of the Shuafat families: Abu Khdeir, Swailem, Abu Naih and Al-Mashni, which was rejected by the owners of the land who submitted a complaint against the railway company in London and a complaint against the Ministry of Interior and Finance in Jerusalem.

The destroyed site - the site of the violation - is leased from the owners of the land to Samer Al-Shweiki, and it is part of a plot of land measuring 26 Doumas, on part of which a railway and an electric train station were built, as well as the street that connects the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev to Al-Quds Street in Ramallah. It is on the main Shuafat Street. The organized area is 4 dunams out of the total land area of 26 dunams, and the railway company stands as an obstacle to the land owners’ attempt to organize that land.

Shuafat village:

Shuafat is a Palestinian town located in the northeast of the city of Jerusalem, at a distance of 5 kilometers to the north of the Old City of Jerusalem, and lies within the jurisdiction of the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem. The village is bordered to the east by Anata and Hizma, to the north by Beit Hanina, to the west by Beit Iksa, and to the south by Isawiya. Its area is about 5274 dunums. The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated about 47% of Shuafat’s lands in favor of building settlements, military bases and the apartheid wall. The population exceeded 32 thousand people until 2012 AD. Shuafat is an active commercial center that attracts many residents of the town and neighboring villages north of Jerusalem.

Shuafat lacks large open spaces, and suitable lands for urban construction, with a high population density, and theft of land by the occupation, so its original area amounted to about 5274 dunums, of which about 47% were confiscated as follows:

• 1,494 dunams for Rekhes Shufat (Ramat Shlomo).
• 1,446 dunams for Ramot (Ramot Allon).
• 416 dunams for Ramat Eshkol.
• 239 dunams for Pisgat Amir.
• 394 dunams for Giva't Shappira (French Hill).