Land Research Center

Families of Hussain and Nabeel ‘Eleyan In Safafa south Jerusalem are facing eviction threats after the  Israel Tax Authority resolution that imposes a large fine as a property tax for their plot.

Family members of brothers Hussain and Nabeel ‘Elyan live at four houses on a plot that they own , the two families are 22 people , 14 of them are children , the houses were built in different times , one of them was built in 1936  before the occupation.

Hassan ‘Eleyan told LRC:

“In 2016, I received a tax paper that says I have to pay a tax with the amount of 1900,000; at first I didn’t know what is this for , is it the plot under the house ?, is it the house we live in? . Then it turned out that the sum is a collection of tax payments on the plot we inherited from my father and registered as a Tapu paper.

Israel Tax Authority claims that we didn’t pay taxes since 1986 , noting that we were not told to pay taxes and we never knew about this low.

We hired a lawyer, and he managed to reduce the sum to 600,000 shekels, but we can’t also pay this amount, and in Dec 2020, a massive army force and employees from the tax department raided the area to confiscate furniture of the house and offer the plot for sale, to get the money.

We called our lawyer and the court, and the occupation authorities offered a deal which is to pay monthly payments worth 50,000 shekels , or they will confiscate the plot immediately , we agreed to save our house even though we can’t pay such a high payment every month , they also added 150 thousands as costs of a police car and tax authority employees , the fine amounted to 750 shekels.

We already paid two fines (100,000) shekels and we still have 650 thousands to go , we called on institutions , foundations , officials and political parties , to help us pay the rest of the amount. And , no matter what happens we will never evict our house , they are trying to empty it in order to turn it into a colony.”

The family headed to a legal aid institution, and to people of the area to ask for help , because the family doesn’t have any other choices left.

People of Beit Safafa formed a committee to collect donations to help the family , they also put donation boxes inside and outside the village to protect their village form turning into an Israeli colony in case the house was confiscated.

About Beit Safafa:^[1]

It is 6km to the southeast of Jerusalem city. The town is edged by the occupied territories of 1948 from the north, Sharafat village from the west, Talpiyot colony from the east and Bethlehem from the south.

Beit Safafa has a total population of 20,000 people until 2008, who live on 866 dunums of buit-up area out of the 3259 dunums total area.

Israeli colonies confiscated 920 dunums from the town's lands as follows:

Har Homa: it was established in 1977 and is now inhabited by 1125 colonists. It confiscated 170 dunums from Beit Safafa.

Givat Hamatos: it was established in 1991 and confiscated 284 dunums form the town.

Gilo: it was established in 1971 and is now inhabited by 27569 colonists. It confiscated 466 dunums from the town.

[1] GIS-LRC