On January 14, 2017, Sarri family self-demolished their commercial structures in Al-Sal'a neighborhood as per compelling to the order of Israel Municipality that claimed them built without licenses.

It should be marked that the demolished stores are for marble and stones; they were established on a 4 dunum plot. The structures are as follows:

• Four containers used as storage units and another one used as an office
• A 50m² store used as marble and stones gallery

The targeted structures belong to citizen Mohammad Riziq Sarri. The citizen's following brothers work in his establishments:

Citizen Othman Sarri told Land Research Center the following:

" A massive force from Israel Police backed by a staff from Israel Municipality raided on January 12, 2017 the area and delivered us a dismantling order on the structures within a 24 hour deadline. If we fail to implement the order, the occupation's municipalities will implement it and all the costs will be billed to us.

At time, we sought attorney Hussein Ghannam to try to delay the demolition order as long as possible. But all attempts failed after the municipality's court rejected the delay plea. Thus, we had to implement the order by ourselves; the dismantling process started on January 15, 2017 and ended in January 18, 2017".

It is reported that the citizen's losses mounted more than 100,000 NIS, not mentioning that the commodities we have were left outside under the rain.

Such measures is considered an Israeli method of collective punishment on Jerusalemites; especially the residents of Jabal Al-Mukabir.

Self-Demolition is a Crime against Humanity:

Definition: When an owner of a structure is forced to demolish his property by himself, it is called 'self demolition' or 'silent demolition'. It used to be carried out in quiet or in silence as the name suggests. But recently, due to their increased number of cases, victims have come to disclose that such type of demolition exists and that it is their only choice and speak out about the inhumanity of the Israeli occupation for forcing such a practice.

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 72 cases where the owners had to demolish their property by themselves during the past five years making 477 civilian citizens, more than half of whom are children, homeless and lacking security and stability.

This case study is part of Kan'aan Project