Land Research Center

On the morning of Wednesday, May 11, 2022, the occupation municipal forces in Jerusalem demolished an apartment in Al-Isawiya in the Al-Madras neighborhood. The municipality and its crew were accompanied by a bulldozer specialized in high places and large forces that assaulted those in the place. The demolition process was under the pretext of not having a license. In addition, the crews demolished part of a commercial workshop owned by the citizen Muhammad Farouk Mustafa in the Zafarana area and confiscated bulldozers and heavy equipment from the workshop.

The demolished apartment is located on the fourth floor above the owner’s house. It has an area of about 200 square metres. It includes three rooms, two bathrooms, a salon, a kitchen, in addition to a large balcony. Muhammad Farouk, whose family consisted of 6 members, 4 children, two girls, prepared this house for his son’s residence, for an amount that reached up to Half a million shekels, about 170,000 US dollars, in addition to vandalizing and the demolishing of the apartment, the lower floor of the house has its walls cracked. The owner was forced to clean the place where the garden walls damaged as well.

During the demolition, the owner's son was attacked, the family was insulted, and the family trying to get its son to get married was besieged. They all expressed the shock that accompanied the demolition process.

On the other hand, the municipality attacked the commercial workshop owned by Muhammad Farouk, from which five families live, part of it has been swept, and confiscated important and essential equipment for his work, and demanded that he complete the bulldozing of the workshop as a condition for returning the confiscated tools. The owner expressed his grief and pain, as he lost his son's dream, as well as his livelihood.

Al-Isawiya village is located to the northeast of the city of Jerusalem, and it is considered as a large prison due to the presence of a large concentration of settlements around it. On the southern and western side, the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital sit on its land, while on the eastern and northern side, there are many winding roads, and the wall separates it from the natural extension of its surroundings, such as the town of al-Zaim and the eastern and northern regions of the town.

Al-Isawiya town[1]:

The town of Al-Isawiya is located 7 km north of the city of Jerusalem. It is bordered to the north by Shuafat and Anata, to the west by Jerusalem and Shuafat, to the east by Al-Eizariya, to the south by Jerusalem and Al-Za’im.

It consists of a mountainous area and foothills, surrounded by settlement projects on all sides, the Hebrew University and its facilities and residences on the southeast, and Hadassah Hospital and its facilities and residences on the western side, in addition to the confiscationof large areas of the village’s land, and the presence of the separation wall on its lands from the eastern and northern sides, which separated it from its natural Palestinian surroundings, and it is worth noting that demolitions are repeated almost daily in the village, in the inhabited neighborhoods and on marginal lands alike.

Its total area is 9,419 dunums, of which 637 dunams are the building area of the village.

The occupation confiscated an area of (2305) dunams of its lands, as follows:

• The colonies/settlements looted from the village lands an area of (1019) dunams from the village lands, which is:

2- Bypass roads looted (641.5) dunums for Roads No. 1 and (437).

3- The separation wall looted 44 dunums, and its length was 443 meters.

4- The occupation army camps looted (600) dunams

[1] Source: GIS Unit - Land Research Center.