Violation: Demolishing two agricultural rooms.

Location: Rantis village/ Ramallah governorate.

Date: August 4^th 2020.

Perpetrators: The Israeli Occupation Civil Administration.

Victims: Wajeeh Wahdan , and Muath Al-Khateeb.

Description:

Tuesday, August 4^th 2020, the Israeli occupation Authorities demolished two agricultural rooms east Rantis north Ramallah, on the pretext of building without a license.

About 8:30 am, Massive army forces raided the area, imposed closure and brought a bulldozer to carry out the demolition.

• The first room: built of wood and zinc sheets with a total are of (16 m²), that belong to Citizen Wajeeh Wahdan.

The room before the demolition

• The Second room: built of steel and zinc sheets with a total area of (16 m²), that belong to Mu’az Khateeb.

The room before the demolition

Photos 1-6: Rubble of the agricultural room

The Israeli Occupation forces accompanied by the building and organization inspector in the Israeli Civil Administration raided the area in July 15^th 2020, and gave the owners notices under which the objection period for a previous demolition order was extended; this was preceded by halt of work notices for the targeted structures in May 24^th 2020.

One of the owners,  Mu’az Al-Khateeb (31) told LRC the following:

“Early 2020, we built a room in our farmland to use it as a resting place as we spend a lot of time working there , but we were shocked of the Occupation’s decision to carry out the demolition. We do not make any threat in their state’s security, it is clear that they are planning to seize the land, and empty it for colonialist projects.”

During the last five years, the Israeli Occupation demolished number of facilities. During May 2020, the occupation demolished pergolas, market stalls, and agricultural rooms, in addition to distributing notices around the village.

Rantis town:[1]

The town of Rantis is located 35 km northwest of Ramallah, bordered on the north by the village of Al -Liban Al Gharbi, on the west by the the Green Line, on the east by Al- Liban Al Gharbi, and on the south by Shuqba. Its total population is 3179 people, according to the census of 2017. Its total area is 10,780 dunums, of which 647 dunums are a built-up area of the village.

Since the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Rantis’s land has been under constant confiscation as followed:

218 dunams were seized to build the bypass road No. 465 connecting Israeli settlements with Israel;

414 dunums were confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid wall, and 1616 dunums were isolated behind it.

The land of Rantis is classified according to the Oslo Agreement as followed:

• Areas classified as B – 1,328 dunums.
• Areas classified as C -9,452 dunums.

There are also a number of small old villages (Khirbets) around the mother town of Rantis that indicate the ancient character and authenticity of the area. They include the following: ‘Deir Alla, Barish, Khirbet Mesmar, Deir Degla, Al-Dur, Al-Ras, the shrine of Saad and Saeed and the shrine of Arbaeen.

The town of Rantis is inhabited by the following families: Khalaf, Hadan, Ballout, Riahi, and Abu Salim.

[1] GIS-LRC

This report was prepared as part of Securing Palestinian Land and Housing Rights Funded by the EU

The Contents of this report are LRC risponsibility and do not reflect positions and views of the European Union