29, January 2018, the occupation's bulldozers , under the protection of IOF and the demolished two residential buildings in Bie Ouneh , Beit Jala on the pretext of building without permission by the Apartheid wall that the occupation implanted in the location.

The first building is owned by citizen Waleed Zraineh and consists of 3 floors, each floor contains 4 apartments, each one is of 120m²,  Thesecond building is owned by citizen Mohammad Abdul Hadi Al Hroub, with same number of apartments and area of the first building.

Zraineh told LRC observers:

"We inherited the land from our fathers and ancestors, and we have legal documents to prove that, it is obvious that the demolition unjustified  "

Zraineh added:

" The demolition is unjustified , my sons and I gave the Israeli officer the legal file that we prepared for the Israeli court and the petition order , Then they arrested us in  a container until they finished the demolition that took only few hours, even though building it took years of our work"

Engineer Arwa Abu Al Heijeh told LRC observer:

" the occupation's purposes are clear, they are aspiring to evacuate the area, and take over the land, that area is annexed to the occupation's municipality in Jerusalem. recently, Local government in Beit Jala passed an order to organize buildings in that area, even though they are not authorized to gurantee building permissions in that area, but they had to work to organize it and save it from population congestion"

Engineer Samia in Beit Jala municipality told LRC observer:

"Beit Jala municipality provides infrastructure services  to the area excluding water in order to help residents hold on their lands, and facilitate their lives"

It is worthy mentioning that Al-Zraineh building was built for his sons and nephews to provide a home for their families, but the occupation rapidly demolished the building , which will impose heavy charges on their budget.

It is important to point out that Bir Ouneh is a part of Beit Jala city, but since 1967 it is annexed to the occupation's municipality in Jerusalem who impose their terms and complications on the people , after "Israel" occupied West bank including east Jerusalem and Gaza strip, most of Bir Ouneh inhabitants hold an east Jerusalem identity card, and pay "Arnona[1]" to the occupations municipality , except that the occupation does not guarantee any building permissions on that area, and impose complication in order to take over their lands.

In 2015 the occupation interpolated building the apartheid wall that devoured more agricultural lands, they also uprooted millennial olive trees and stealing lands of citizens.

Demolishing two buildings is a part of Israeli violations against Palestinian personal properties , the Israeli occupation are working on building a bridge and a tunnel which requires grabbing more lands.

Beit Jala:

It is located 1 km to the west of Bethlehem and 8 km to the south west of the Occupied City of Jerusalem. 3147 dunums (22%) of the town's lands were confiscated to expand the borders of "greater Jerusalem" and a number of surrounding colonies including:

Gilo: it was established in 1971 to cover around 2738 dunums in area nowadays. 1117 dunums are part of Beit Jala lands. The colony is inhabited by 31500 colonists.

Har Gilo: it was established in 1972 to cover around 420 dunums in area nowadays. 314 dunums are part of Beit Jala lands. The colony is inhabited by 414 colonists.

Area and Location:

Beit Jala is inhabited by 16700 Palestinians (PCBS). Its total area is 14337 dunums divided into 6142 dunums (area 'A'), 91 dunums (area 'B'), and 8104 dunums (area 'C') (Oslo Interim Agreement 1995).

[1] Aranona is a municipal services tax, collected by the occupation's municipality in Jerusalem, levied on citizens and illegal settlers, but in different values, settlers have to pay less taxes but get better services, while Palestinian citizen are treated the other way, they have to pay higher taxes , but they get less services and sometimes none.

Dr Hanna Issa.

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