Monday morning, February 22^nd 2021, People of Al-‘Isawiya woke up to a tragic scene, after a massive army force accompanied by dozers raided the village and demolished a building belongs to ‘Eleyan family , on the pretext of building without a license according to the Occupation Municipality.

The targeted building consists of two floors, each one contains two apartments (90 m² for each) , the building is inhabited by 4 families (18 family members , 9 of them are children) , and belongs to citizen Samiha ‘Eleyan and her sons Fadi , Murad, Amjad and their families.

Getting a Construction License in Jerusalem is almost impossible:

‘Eleyan asserted:                                     

“A 160 thousand shekel fine “About 50,000 $” was imposed on the family on the pretext of building without a license, during the past ten years we were working on licensing the building which was constructed within the village’s built up area , which means that the situation is less dangerous because the building is within the borders of the detailed plan . The Occupation Municipality took a decision to freeze demolition resolutions at the village until completing the detailed plan. Despite everything, the occupation carried out the demolition viciously.

The Occupation Authorities ordered that we demolish the building in our own hands, but we refused. And one day before the demolition we received a call from the municipality informing that the dozers will carry the demolition the next day, so we evicted the building , took the furniture , and dismantled everything we could before the demolition. Next morning, the occupation forces gathered around the building, and closed the village’s entrances and exits, then carried out the demolition.”

Citizen Fadi who works as a guard at The Al-Aqsa Compound said: “I received a call from an Israeli Intelligence officer who threatened that the building will be demolished because I stand up in the face of Israeli colonists when they try to raid Al-Aqsa compound”.  The officer accused him of “misbehaving” according to a phone call later published on social media websites; this is an example of blackmailing Palestinians in Jerusalem and many other places.

Al'Isawiya: 

7 kilometer north Jerusalem, Al'Isawiya is surrounded by Shu'fat and 'Anata (North), Jerusalem and Shu'fat (west), Al' Eizariya (east) , Jerusalem and Az Za'ayyem (north) .

Al'Isawiya has a total area of 9,419 of which 673 dunums are a built-up area of the village.

The Israeli occupation devoured 2305 dunums of the lands of the village, for the following purposes:

The occupation devoured 1019 dunums for colonies:

• bypass number (1) and number (437) took over 641.5 dunums of the village lands.

• The Apartheid Wall that damaged 44 dunums and is 443 long.

• Occupation's military camps took over 600 dunums.

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

This report was prepared with EU funding, the contents of this document do not reflect positions of the European Union