Tuesday, July 6^th 2021, Abu Ghannam family were forced to demolish their own building - an apartment building that contains three apartments- after the occupation municipality issued a demolition order for the structure , the court had passed this resolution after several sessions on the pretext of violating construction laws.

The targeted building was built in 2013, the three families moved to the building before the occupation municipality summoned citizen Ahmed Abu Ghannam to court and accused him of violating construction laws. In 2019, the court decided to demolish the building, and sat May 2021 as the final date for the demolition. The targeted building consists of two floors: the first floor contains two apartments, one of the apartments is inhabited by citizen Mohammed Abu Ghannam who lives with his family of 8, 6 of them are children and the apartment has a total area of 80 m². The second apartment is inhabited by citizen Ahmed Abu Ghannam and his family that consists of 8 family members, 6 of them are children.

The Owners rented a bulldozer to implement the demolition, after emptying the structure from their personal properties and furniture.

At-Tur village: [1]

At-Tur is one of Jerusalem’s oldest villages, it is located about 3 km to the east of Jerusalem city , At-Tur is bordered by As-Suwana and Al-Isawiya (north) , Jerusalem city – the old city (west), Az-Zayyem (east) and (Ash-Shayah) south , At-Tur has a population of 35,000 people (2017) .

At-Tur village has a total area of 9,200 dunums , of which (911) dunums are a built up area.

Self-Demolition:

This kind of demolition is mainly imposed on Palestinians in Jerusalem in efforts to displace them and Judaize the city.

The Israeli occupation always justifies that type of demolition, which is a blatant contravention of the right to residence and a crime against humanity, on the pretext of unlicensed construction.

[If your house has been built without a building permit, then it is legal and you have to destroy it and remove the wreckage as soon as possible. You also have to take pictures of the destroyed structure and send them to the Inspection Department of the Planning and Construction Committee in the occupying municipality to verify the act. There is a fixed date regarding when you have to carry out the demolition operation and this is a red line you cannot cross. There is a second date set by the municipality court of local affairs to check if you have abided by the demolition order or not. In case you do not comply, the municipality will demolish your residence at your expense. If you cannot pay, you will be jailed, so the lesser of two evils becomes the self-demolition choice.]

LRC field observers kept a close eye on the matter and recorded 720 cases where the owners had to demolish their property by themselves during the past ten years (2010 -2020) making 1444 civilian citizens, more than 726 of whom are children, homeless and lacking security and stability. 94 cases were reported during the year 2020, a 140% increase in comparison to last year 2019.

[1] GIS-LRC

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

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