2019-01-25
The occupation’s municipality forces Al-Abasi to demolish his own home in Silwan/ Jerusalem
Friday, 25 January 2019, Mohammad Al-Abasi demolished on his own hands a part of his house in Wad Yasoul neighborhood at Silwan.
The demolition targeted a bedroom and a living room (50 m2) , inhabited by Mohammad, his wife and child.
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قبل
About two and a half years ago, Mohammad built a bedroom (25 m2) and a living room (25 m2), as an addition to his house , which has an area of (50 m2) and contains a bedroom, kitchen and a bathroom.
Al-Abasi received a military order from the occupation to demolish the new part.
As the military order said, In case Al-Abasi did not demolish the notified part, the occupation troops will implement the operation and make him pay for all the expenses. In order to avoid that fate , he demolished the new structure on his own.
Self-Demolition is a Crime against Humanity:
Definition: When an owner of a structure is forced to demolish his property by himself, it is called 'self demolition' or 'silent demolition'. It used to be carried out in quiet or in silence as the name suggests. But recently, due to their increased number of cases, victims have come to disclose that such type of demolition exists and that it is their only choice and speak out about the inhumanity of the Israeli occupation for forcing such a practice.
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.
LRC field observers kept a close eye on the matter and recorded 137 cases where the owners had to demolish their property by themselves during the past eight years making 1303 civilian citizens, more than half of whom are children, homeless and lacking security and stability.
The following table provides numbers of houses demolished by their owners in occupied Jerusalem (2010-2018):
years
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Number of houses
|
Area m2
|
Family members
|
children
|
2018
|
20
|
1976
|
125
|
65
|
2017
|
17
|
1325
|
90
|
55
|
2016
|
28
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1999
|
125
|
56
|
2015
|
6
|
380
|
31
|
14
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2014
|
11
|
605
|
88
|
31
|
2013
|
13
|
822
|
107
|
64
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2012
|
14
|
984
|
92
|
53
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2011
|
15
|
700
|
88
|
56
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2010
|
13
|
827
|
102
|
61
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total
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137
|
9618
|
848
|
455
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Source: Firsthand field observation- Israeli violations monitoring section- LRC , January 2019.
About Silwan: [1]
1 Km south Jerusalem, Silwan is surrounded by Jerusalem (north & east), the green line (west) , Ath-Thori and Jabal Al-Mukabir (south).
Silwan has an area of 1,400 dunums, 855 of them are the town’s built up area.
[1] GIS-LRC
