Violation: demolition of a house.

Date: 2-April-2019.

Location: Bir Ouneh- Beit Jala/ Bethlehem governorate.

Perpetrator: The occupation’s municipality in Jerusalem.

Victims: Citizen Ibrahim Issa.

Description:

Israeli forces supported by bulldozers raided Bir Ouneh area , and carried on demolishing a house that belongs to Ibrahim Issa on the pretext of building without licenses.

Noteworthy, The occupation’s municipality served a halt of work order on the house in 24 July 2018 , the owner hired a lawyer to follow up the case in the Israeli court.

the demolition military order

However , in 7 March 2019, the occupation forces invaded Ibrahim’a house and served him a demolition order. As it is said in the military order, the owner must demolish his own structure before the 1^st of April and pay a fine of 300,000 NIS.

hand written notice to Ibrahim Issa

Ibrahim did not obey the military order. Thus, in the next day the occupation troops showed up at 8:00 AM and completely leveled the building that contains Ibrahim’s residence and a garage, the occupation troops also assaulted the family members during the demolition operation that ended at 2:00 pm, As Basima Laham, Ibrahim’s wife told LRC reporter.

The following table shows more information about the targeted structure:

 The bulldozers demolishing the hous

About Bir Ouneh:

It is important to point out that Bir Ouneh is a part of Beit Jala city, but since 1967 it is annexed to the occupation's municipality in Jerusalem who impose their terms and complications on the people , after "Israel" occupied West bank including east Jerusalem and Gaza strip, most of Bir Ouneh inhabitants hold an east Jerusalem identity card, and pay "Arnona[1]" to the occupations municipality , except that the occupation does not guarantee any building permissions on that area, and impose complication in order to take over their lands.

Beit Jala has a population of 1413 people in 2017 census.

The occupation devoured wide area of Beit Jala and Bir Ouneh areas for the construction of these settlements:

• “Gilo” settlement was established in 1971 on confiscated lands from Beit Jala, “Gilo” settlement ate up about 2738 dunums of which 1117 dunums  were confiscated from Beit Jala, Gilo is populated 31500 illegal settlers.
• “Har Gilo” settlement was established  in 1972 on lands confiscated from Beit Jala, Har Gilo ate up 420 dunums, of which 314 dunums were confiscated from Beit Jala. Har Gilo is populated 414 illegal settlers.
• Legal feedback:
• It is important to mention that article 53 of Geneva fourth conventions (1949) states:  Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.
• In addition to article 2/17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that: “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”

[1] Aranona is a municipal services tax, collected by the occupation's municipality in Jerusalem, levied on citizens and illegal settlers, but in different values, settlers have to pay less taxes but get better services, while Palestinian citizen are treated the other way, they have to pay higher taxes , but they get less services and sometimes none. D.Hanna Issa - International Law specialist