Land Research Center

Saturday, February 22^nd 2020, Citizen Mohammed Abu Ryala from Al-Isawiya demolished his own house , complying to the municipality’s resolution issued under claims of building without licenses.

Mohammed Abu Ryala told LRC:

“The house was built in 2006 with an area of 80 m² and consists of 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, and built of cement and stones, my uncle Yehia Abu Ryala and his family were living in the house that consist of 4 members, 2 of them are children. one week before the demolition, the Occupation forces showed up and gave me a demolition order , the order gave me a deadline to February 22^nd to demolish the house, in case I breached the deadline they will implement the operation and make me pay for the costs.

To avoid paying the high expenses of the demolition , I decided to demolish the house on my own.

 My uncle’s family moved to my grandfather’s house, then I rented a bulldozer to carry out the demolition.”

It is worth mentioning that the occupation authorities are increasing their repressive procedures against Al'Isawiya people, they decree tens of demolition orders against houses and firms , in addition to installing check points on the towns entrances, and filing fines against derivers, other than decreeing taxes, daily breaking into towns and assault citizens and their properties. Moreover, they arrest citizens, especially children, there are number of children who are home arrests or administrative detainees or have to pay expensive fines. Nevertheless, they turned numbers of them to work in Israeli institution as a punishment.

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.

According to the field visits conducted by Land Research Center, the occupation municipality forced the owners of 100 residences to self-demolish their structures during the past ten year. As a result, more than 848 citizens, 455 of whom are children became homeless.

The following table provides numbers of houses demolished by their owners in occupied Jerusalem (2010-2018):

Source: Firsthand field observation- Israeli violations monitoring section- LRC , Arab Studies Society.

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

This report was prepared with EU funding, the contents of this document do not reflect positions of the European Union