Land Research Center

The family of Nafez Zaytoun in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan has been self-demolishing since the beginning of May 2022 on the second floor of two apartments in its house, under the pretext of not having a license and warning of irregularities and heavy costs that it may pay if it does not comply with the decisions of the occupation municipality and in the event that municipality crews carry out the demolition. Which could threaten the first floor with demolition and cracks in the walls as a result of the occupation forces' indifference to anything if they themselves demolished. Most of the time, the demolition is for the upper floors, result that the ground floors are cracked, becoming uninhabitable and threatening to collapse at any moment.

The house consists of two apartments on the second floor, with a total area of 180 square meters, and each apartment contains three rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. As the two sons of the owner of the house, lives in it with their family of 14 people, including 4 children and 4 girls. The owner built this house for the stability of his children, and it cost more than 600,000 shekels, about 200,000 US dollars, in order to contain the family in one place. It was violated by more than 30,000 shekels (approximately 10,000 dollars) by the courts and the municipality, in addition to the costs of demolition and cleaning up the rubble. As for the house being demolished, the owner's sons and their families have been displaced, in addition to other dangers that require them to demolish a storeroom in the yard of the house.

These practices of the occupation Jerusalem municipality come in the wake of the plan that the occupation forces intend to carry out to demolish hundreds of homes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood and gradually empty them of their residents in a systematic, organized and daily manner.

Silwan is located to the southeast of the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and it is considered the natural extension of the Old City. Silwan faces many dangers that threaten all its residents. Judaization projects deeply affect the demographic structure of the village, through archaeological excavations, the purchase and leakage of citizens’ properties, or operations The lack of space and the high costs that the town imposes on the residents of the village if they try to expand, in addition to transforming the village into a densely populated camp, with no outlet or room for horizontal or vertical urban expansion. Palestinian Silwan. The municipality threatens the demolition of hundreds of homes in an organized process of Judaization the Silwan area, especially Ain Al-Loza, Al-Bustan and Ain Hilweh which is taking place these days.