Land Research Center

Thursday, July 8^th 2021, the executive authority for real estates in the occupied city of Jerusalem decided to demolish a residential building in Shufat north occupied Jerusalem, on the pretext of building without a license. According to the notices, residents will have to evict the building within 14 days.

The targeted building is built of stones, and consists of 4 stores (10 apartments), and the demolition order was issued against owner ‘Abeer Abu Khdair.

One of the affected, Nassir Abu Khdair (‘Abeer’s husband) told LRC:

“In 2003, along with other partners, We built the apartment building on a plot allocated for construction, but was outside the organizational plan. During the construction, The Occupation Municipality showed up and forced us to stop the construction process, and we were summoned to the court, where we had to pay a fine about 200 000 $ (750 000 nis).

The Court sessions went on for long, and in 2005 a demolition order for the building was issued, we filed a petition, and managed to freeze the demolition order but the court ordered to close the building’s doors with bricks between 2005 – 2014.

In 2014, an organizational outline for the area was approved, the building became part of the organized area, the landlords opened the apartments and prepared them for residents, since that day 10 families live at the building (tenants and landlords) , and we continued in the licensing procedures, we even added a new floor to the building.

But Thursday, I received a call from an Israeli intelligence officer to inform me that the building will be demolished, I also received a call from the residents of the building telling me that a demolition order for the building was hanged on the front door.”

Nassir Abu Khdair assigned lawyers Na’im Ghaith and Tawfeeq Darawsha to follow up the case, and they managed to get a delay for the demolition order for 20 days to prepare a legal file with all the ownership deeds.

Shu’fat Refugees’ camp:

4 kilometers north east Jerusalem, Shu’fat is surrounded by “Pizgat Amir” settlement built over confiscated lands (north), Shu’fat town (west) , Anattah( east) and Isawiya (south). Shu’fat refugees’ camp has a population of (60000) people in 2016.

Shu’fat town including the refugees’ camp have together an area of 8494 dunums, of which 2033 dunums are a built-up planned area.

The occupation devoured from Shu’fat town and its refugees’ camp (8591) dunums for the following purposes:

Settlements devoured (3781) dunums for the following:

2. Bypass 60 devoured 8 dunums.

3- The Apartheid wall devoured of 4802 donums and isolated 1013 donums behind it –about 4021 meters long-.

[1] GIS -LRC.

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

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