The dozers of Israel's occupation municipality demolished on February 08, 2017 an under-construction building in the area of “Tal Al-Fool” in Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem.

It is reported that  the bulldozers demolished the building under the pretext of "unlicensed construction". The building is owned by Ayman Abu Rmeileh and was built in 2004. It consists of 2 floors (three apartments in each) where each apartment totals 120m².

The owner said that the land "parcel number 93"  on which the building was established is located within the natural block number 30614. At time, the citizen obtained a building license for 450,000 NIS.

He also explained that the municipality imposed a fine on him for violating the building permit as he exceeded the allowed area to build. He was arrested and detained for one year for not being able to pay the 850 thousand NIS fine imposed on him. He only paid 185,000 NIS.

Citizen Ayman told Land Research Center:

" I sought architect Simon Kuba and attorneys Sami Irsheid and Waseem Ghneim to try to license the building. The process cost me $ 15,000 but to no avail.

On the demolition day, citizen Ayman was prevented from reaching the building as the area was surrounded from all directions. Verbal altercations occurred between the officer and Ayman, who was later arrested and  moved to police station, west Jerusalem.

The demolition lasted for 3 hours.

Land Research Center LRC sees that demolitions contradict with all the International conventions and Humanitarian laws including:

Article 17 of the (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating: “Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.”

Section ‹G› of article 23 of the (1907) The Hague Conventions asserting: “In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.”

Article 53 of the Geneva Fourth Convention (1948) declaring: “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 cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”

Section 1, Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966): “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.

This case study is part of Kan'aan Project