Violation: stop-work orders issued on 4 houses

Location: Al-Khadr town – Bethlehem Governorate

Date: June 11, 2018

Perpetrators:  The Israeli Occupation Civil Administration and Army

Victim(s): 4 Sbeih family members (Emad, Sameeh, Muhammad & Saleh) and Majdi Issa  

Details:

The Israeli army accompanied by the Civil Administration staff stormed the area in the early morning of Monday, June 11^th 2018, and served stop work orders on four under construction dwellings (places of residence) in the area of Abu-Assud and the Ballou' valley in al-Khadr under the pretext of lacking building permits.

"The houses are located in the center of the town. Still, they have been notified of suspension of work, and that shows that there is no point in notifying them, just to harass the Palestinian citizens and increase their stress," said Iyad Issa from the municipality of Khader.

"A car carrying Civil Administration employees stopped by and handed us a notice to stop the construction work; we were in the stage of drilling to establish a base for  building that would consist of several apartments," said Samih Sbeih, one of the affected people from this action.

The Israeli authorities mentioned, in the orders, that the houses were unlicensed construction and compelled owners of immediate termination. 5 July 2018 (at 9am) was set as the Inspection Sub-Committee session to consider the status of the notified structures.

Below are some information on the families whose houses are under demolition threat:

It should be noted that the families began preparing their papers to open a legal file, so as to plead before the Israeli courts in an attempt to freeze or repeal the stop work and construction orders.

"When I inquired about the reason for receiving a stop-work order, the Civil Administration general answered by saying that,' you are in an Israeli land, so you have to apply for a building permit," said Majdi Issa, one of the victims.

It is worth mentioning that the owners of the land have papers that prove their ownership of the land, and most of them inherited the land from their ancestors.

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Photos 1-2: Images of the stop-work orders

Photos 3-6: Photographs of the houses under the threat of demolitionAl Khadr:

Located 4 kilometer west of Bethlehem, Al Khadr village is surrounded by Beit Jala and Battir (north), Husan and Nahhalin (west), Ad Doha, Wadi Rahall, and Beit Jala (east), Wadi An Nais (south).

Al Khadr has a population of 9774 according to statistics conducted in 2007. It has a total area of 8279 dunums, 184 of which are built-up area.

The Israeli occupation confiscated 29 dunums of Al Khadr lands for Efrat and Daniel colonies. Efrat was built in 1979 and devoured 5.8 dunums of Al Khadr. It is inhabited by 7037 colonists. Daniel was built in 1982 and confiscated 23 dunums. 1073 colonists live in the colony.

Bypasses number 60 and 375 devoured more than 487 dunums. Not to mention the Apartheid Wall that destroyed 280 dunums and isolated 5638 dunums of the village. The Wall in Al Khadr is 2805 meters long.

According to Oslo Accords, 10% of Al Khadr is under Area A (PA has full civil and security control) while 6% is under Area B (PA is in charge of civil matters with Israel responsible for security). However,  most of the village lands (84%) is under Area C (Israel maintains full security and administrative control). Here are the area in dunums:

Area A (808) dunums

Area B (475) dunums

Area C (6996) dunums

The contents of this document is the sole responsibility of LRC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union