Land Research Center

Violation: Demolishing structures in Al-Walaja village.

Location: Ein Juwaiza and Khallet Al-Hour – Al-Walaja village / Bethlehem governorate.

Date: 16/09/2019.

Perpetrator: The Israeli occupation forces.

Victims: Fayez Abed Rabu , Hamdi Rabe’a , Halima Ash-Shaikh.

Description:

Monday, September 16^th 2019, the Israeli occupation forces accompanied by bulldozers  raided Al-Walaja and demolished two houses one of them belongs to Fayez Abed Rabu and another to Halima Ash-Shaikh , and a retaining wall that surrounds a plot belongs to Hamdi Rabe’a , on the pretext of building without licenses.

Musa Abed Rabu “uncle of Fayez Abed Rabu” told LRC reporter:

“The occupation forces demolished my nephew’s house, they have no mercy . Fayez racked up a huge dept to build this house, and he has little kids who need care.

We have been suffering since An-Nakba , after the occupation of 1967 they demolished our house, and wiped the village features.”

This table shows more information about the family:

a demolished house that belongs to Fayez Abed Rabu

the demolished retaining wall + the tent

A demolished house belongs to Halima Ash-Shaikh

Noteworthy, the occupation forces carry out a demolition operation at mid night or in the early morning hours, to insure that people of the village won’t organize demonstrations or hinder the demolition; they also announce the area a closed military zone, these measures did not prevent people of the village from waking up on the voices of bulldozers, and trying to stop the attack.

The demolished houses are within the borders of Jerusalem, the occupation divided Al-Walaja village into pieces , and took over vast areas of agricultural lands 

Al-Walaja :[1]

The village of Al Walaja (diminishing from an area of 17,793 dunums to 2400 dunums due to the greed of the Israeli occupation and its colonial project): From 1948 until today, the Israeli occupation has been practicing land theft on the village of Al-Walaja, 8.5 km southwest of Jerusalem and 5.4 km northwest of Bethlehem. The area of the village was 17793 dunums, of which 11793 dunums were occupied by Israel through the Armistice Agreement with the Jordanian Arab side under British patronage. In 1967, the village of Al-Walaja had 6000 dunums. In 1996, Israeli authorities confiscated 500 dunums of the village for the construction of the bypass road (for settlers). Another 1000 dunums were seized in its southern area for the establishment of the settlement of Gilo over the period of 1969-1997, leaving the village with only4500 dunums of land. That did not stop, the Israeli occupation forces confiscated yet more land by building the Apartheid Wall that looted around 2100 dunums of agricultural land that was planted with olive and almond trees.

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

[1] GIS-LRC