Violation: Demolition notices for two residential rooms.

Location: Khirbet Yarza / The northern Jordan Valley.

Date: Sept 9^th 2020.

Perpetrators: The Israeli Occupation department of protecting archaeologies.

Victims: Family of Rami Masa’ed.

Description:

Wednesday , Sept 9^th 2020 , the Israeli Occupation Forces accompanied by Archeology Department Inspector raided Khirbet Yarza in the northern Jordan Valley , and targeted a residence composes of two rooms with a removal notice within three days on the pretext of sabotaging an archeological site. According to the notice numbered (00507) the occupation claims that the house breaches Archaeologies low number 51 issued in 1966 , thus the owner must remove the structure (according to the notice).

The structure belongs to Rami Al-Masa’ed (25), who told LRC:

“I have been living in this place since I was born, and I live out of agriculture and cattle breeding. I own 60 heads of sheep and 10 cows, I also take care of my handicapped brother, I was planning to build an additional room next to my residence (one room) , the two rooms were going to have a total area of 80 m², one of them for my wife and I , and the other one for my handicapped brother. However, the occupation forces raided the area and handed a removal and demolition notice for the two rooms, on the pretext of “Sabotaging Archaeologies”. Noteworthy,  the first room was built 30 years ago , and inhabited since then, the occupation claims to be “too protective”  for antiquities that they will demolish our home for 30 years.”.

Recently, the Khirbet was targeted several times by the Occupation, which already destroyed the road that links Khirbet Yarza to Khirbet Beit Einun, in addition to destroying a number of agricultural cisterns, and confiscating waterlines that provides the Khirbet with water.

The Occupation also turned vast areas of the Khirbet into military training area, the leftovers of these training exploded several times and caused deaths or permanent disabilities.

About Khirbet Yarza:[1]

5 Km east Tubas city, Khirbet Yarza is bordered by Al-Malih and Al-Aqaba (north), Tubas city (west) , Al-Malih (east) and Tubas city (south).

According to PCBS census, there are (31) people living in Yarza.

Yarza has a total population of 6,154 dunums, of which 12.7 dunums are a built up area. Khirbet Yarza is in C area according to Oslo conventions.

[1] GIS-LRC

This report was prepared as part of Securing Palestinian Land and Housing Rights project activties

The contents of this document are the responsibility of LRC , and do not rerflect positions and views of The European Union