On the morning of August 17, 2022, occupation municipality crews stormed the village of Sharafat, southwest of Jerusalem, accompanied by bulldozers and machinery to demolish the house of Mahmoud Muhammad Abu Raya (33 years), on the pretext that he did not have a license for the house. As soon as the crews began evacuating the house of its furniture and cutting off the electricity and water network, the family's lawyer arrived at the place with a decision to postpone the demolition for three months.

A general view of the house threatened with demolition (second floor)

The owner of the apartment expressed the full readiness of the occupation municipality staff to demolish the house, which was suddenly scheduled on the same day, but the efforts of lawyer Muhammad Rashid in the court culminated in the issuance of a decision to postpone the demolition for a period of three months, and this decision requires the owner to carry out the demolition automatically and without the ability to appeal.

It is noteworthy that the house is a second floor in which the family of Mahmoud Abu Raya lives, consisting of four members, including two children. The house was built of cement and banalite material) in 2012. It consists of two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, and the construction cost amounted to 250 thousand shekels (about 80 thousand US dollars).

Regarding postponing the demolition process, the owner stated that the lawyer was able to issue an order to stop the demolition and postpone it for a period of three months, provided that the owner would be demolishing it at the end of this period, and that it is impossible to appeal and try to issue a license for the house, because it is built on top of the owner’s father’s house (ground floor), which was built without a license as well, which poses a danger to the whole family.

Legal Feedback:

The demolition of Palestinian homes and facilities by the occupation authorities comes within its violations of international and humanitarian law, and a violation of a right of Palestinian citizens guaranteed by international law and international treaties, which is the right to adequate housing, within the following articles:

• Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a “grave breach” of the Convention”.
• Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1948 “prohibits 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”.
• Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states:
• No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed.
• Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of.
• Paragraph 'G' of Article 23 of The Hague Convention of 1907 warns against “the destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war”.
• Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dated December 10, 1948, states that “Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others”.

Sharafat Village:

Sharafat is a Palestinian village occupied in 1967, overlooking the city of Jerusalem and 5 km away from it, rising 750 m above sea level, and the Israeli-Arab armistice line (the 1948 borders) passes 300 m from the village. It is located west of Beit Safafa and north of Beit Jala, and is bordered on several sides by the settlement of Gilo, which was built on village lands and Beit Jala lands. Its population is approximately 1,500 people, the land area with Beit Safafa is 5750 dunams, and most of the residents are of Palestinian nationality in 1967.