Thursday January 28^th 2020 , the Israeli occupation municipality demolished a tile business facility in Wad Al-Jouz neighborhood in Jerusalem, on the pretext of building without licenses , the shop has an area of 100 m², and belongs to citizen Fadi Ash-Shebr.

Fadi Ash-Shebr told LRC:

 “I started a tile trading business in wad Al-Jouz at the industrial area , but the occupation’s municipality workers showed up and gave me a demolition order on the facility , under claims of building without licenses.”

In the early morning hours of Monday January 28^th , massive army forces accompanied by a bulldozer showed up and leveled the facility to the ground , along with all the tiles inside, leaving me with a great financial loss.

The industrial area in Jerusalem is very crowded and needs organization, and the occupation authorities prohibit any new investments of construction in the area , during the recent few years the occupation authorities carried out several demolition operations in the industrial area.

 Legal Feedback:

Demolishing Palestinian structure and facilities is considered a violation of international humanitarian law , this is reflected in 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.

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