Israel launches a demolition campaign in occupied Jerusalem

Tuesday morning, November 19^th 2019, the Israeli occupation municipality launched a demolition campaign that targeted 3 houses in the occupied city of Jerusalem , one of them is in Jabal Al-Mukabir and another in Silwan south Jerusalem, while the third is in Beit Hanina.

This campaign came only few hours after the US administration announced that they no longer consider colonization illegal , which gave support to the Israeli occupation to feel protected while violating International Law, United Nations Resolutions , Geneva fourth convention and all international agreements.

The occupation municipality demolishes a house leaving a family homeless north Jerusalem

About 2:00 pm of Tuesday, the Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished a house belongs to Majdi Alloun , and left a family of 6 homeless (4 of them are under age) , a massive army force accompanied by bulldozers raided the area, prohibited activists and Journalists from approaching the location then leveled the residence to the ground.

 Owner Majdi Alloun told LRC :

“I built the house few years ago, it has an area of 120 m^2,  and I live In it with my wife and four children among them a little baby girl . Eight months ago, I received a demolition order issued by the occupation municipality on the pretext of building without licenses; they also imposed a very high fine that reached about 40 thousand shekels that I started to pay in installments 18 months ago . but unfortunately, in the latest court session the occupation authorities decided to demolish the house, despite the efforts of our lawyer and engineer.

About 2:00 pm, over 100 troops surrounded our house with a bulldozer and carried on leveling our home to the ground, and destroying everything we had inside it , we were also beaten whenever we tried to stop them, and now we seek for an asylum”

This pictures show the destruction left by the occupation bulldozers on Palestinian structures violating all international conventions and agreements and International Humanitarian Law , here are Palestinian children deprived of one of their basic right ; the right of an adequate housing,  Child Rital Alloun ,only one of thousands of Palestinian who returned home from school to find their homes leveled to the ground, and find their dreams and toys in the rubble , the video shows the moment Rital returned from school and found the family home completely destroyed , and only could ask her mother “They broke my baby sister’s crib, now where will she sleep?” Watch the video

About Beit Hanina:[1]

5 km north Jerusalem, Beit Hanina is surrounded by Bir Nabala (north), Beit Hanina down town (Bait Hanina town was divided to two parts by the Apartheid wall Upper Beit Hanaina and Beit Hanina down town) (west), Hizma (east) and Shufat (south). Beit Hanina has a population of 33,617 people in 2009, and an area of (8,877) , (3,341) dunums are a built up area.

The occupation confiscated over 3700 dunums for the following purposes:

Illegal colonies confiscated (3064) dunums as follows:

Bypass roads (50 +60) confiscated over 482 dunums.

Apartheid wall took over 50 dunums and has a length of (987) meters.

Occupation's military camps took over (103) dunums.

The doings of the Israeli occupations of demolition Palestinian constructions is a violation of the rights of Palestinian citizens as ensured by international law and international conventions especially the right of an appropriate residence. According to the following articles:

Article 147 of Geneva fourth convention: extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. ( it is considered a serious violation of the convention)

Article 53 of Geneva fourth convention that forbids destroying properties: 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 co-operative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.

Article 33 of Geneva fourth convention: No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed.

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