September 2020 Demolition and Displacement Report

2 September

6 September

8 September

10 September

13 September

14 September

15 September

16 September

17 September

18 September

22 September

23 September

24 September

29 September

30 September

Overall

Notes:

There are four categories of demolitions:

Punitive demolitions: Houses demolished as punishment for the actions of people associated with the houses. Administrative demolitions: Houses demolished for lack of a building permit. This happens in Area C and in East Jerusalem, under exclusive Israeli authority, though prior to the existence of Areas A, B & C it occurred in other areas as well.  It is important to point out that in almost all cases, Palestinians have no choice but to build "illegally" as permits are rarely granted Land-clearing operations/Military demolitions: Houses demolished by the IDF in the course of military operations for the purposes of clearing off a piece of land (for whatever reason), achieve a military goal or to kill wanted persons as part of Israel’s policy of extrajudicial executions.. Undefined demolitions: These include mainly demolitions resulting from land-clearing operations and removal of Palestinian populations.

*     WASH stands for structures relating to water, sanitation and hygiene.

†     In many cases, notably in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities condition Palestinians to either demolish their properties themselves or have the authorities do so. In an attempt to avoid having to pay the high fee of the Israeli authorities’ demolition operation and additional high fines, many Palestinians are forced to self-demolish. .

Above data is from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,B’tselem, Palestinian Information Centre, Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, IMEMC

UPDATES   “Court Rules on the Eviction of 4 Palestinian families from their homes in Batan Al-Hawa, Silwan

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled last week that the four families of the Abd al-Fatah Rajabi house in Batan Al-Hawa in Silwan should evacuate their homes in favor of settlers within six months. One of the family members, Qayed Rajabi, said this week: “We are 26 people in this house; we were born in this neighborhood, grew up in it, got married in it and had children in it. Now the court has ruled that we should leave by April 1st.”

The late Jaber Rajabi, the grandfather of the family, purchased the land in 1966 when the area was still under Jordanian control and built the house. However, the court ruled that since the land was owned by a Jewish sanctuary more than a century ago – the family must vacate the house. The family intends to appeal to the District Court.

The lawsuit is one of a series of dozens of eviction lawsuits filed by people from Ateret Cohanim settlers group against nearly 100 Palestinian families living in Batan al-Hawa in Silwan, putting a community of 700 people in danger of being evicted. The settlers’ claims are based on the claim that in the late 19th century the land was allocated by its Jewish owners to a Jewish trust for the benefit of the poor Yemenite Jews of Jerusalem. Today, in the name of the same trust, settlers seek to evict the Palestinian families and replace them with Israeli settlers.

Last January, the court ordered the eviction of 11 families with 67 people from Batan Al-Hawa, in three different lawsuits (the Nasser Rajabi family, the Duweik family and the Shweiki and Odeh families). All the families appealed to the district court and had to deposit tens of thousands of shekels in the court coffers to delay the eviction. No decisions have yet been made on these appeals.

Since 2015, 14 families have been evicted from Batan al-Hawa. Last week’s judgment, together with the three judgments from January, ordered the eviction of another 14 families with 93 persons. Another 70 families approximately are in courts in eviction cases.

Nir Hasson of Haaretz newspaper revealed that the police had also accompanied the settlers in threatening calls on tenants in an attempt to get them to leave the homes.”

For the full report, published by Peace Now on 9 September 2020 -  https://peacenow.org.il/en/court-rules-the-eviction-of-4-palestinian-families-from-their-homes-in-batan-al-hawa-in-silwan

“The Supreme Court- A decision to evict the Salah family from its house in Silwan in favor of Elad Settlement Association

On Monday, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision to evict the family of Izzat Salah from their home in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, in favor of Elad Settlement Association.

Wadi Hilweh Information Center stated that the Supreme Court gave the Salah family until 5/11/2020 to implement the eviction decision, and the court decided to compensate the family "being a protected tenant in the property" with 361,000 shekels.

The center added that the case of the Salah family's house began in 2015, when the original owner of the property called “Aref Qaraeen” demanded the property which is a residential apartment, adjacent to a residential room and its utilities, a store and a yard. Qaraeen was able to take part of the property since the tenant was not considered as “protected” and was later sold to settlers in February 2017.

At the time, Elad Association was able to control most of the property with the exception of the Salah family apartment, as it is a "protected tenant" who has lived in it since 1968.

The family’s lawyer, Nael Al-Rashed, explained to the Information Center that the decision of all three court ) Magistrate, District and Supreme) came in favor of Elad Settlement Association which filed an eviction lawsuit against the Salah family to evict it from the apartment, even though it is a "protected tenant", based on laws that enable the owner of the property, and in this case the Elad Association, to evict the tenants if they need the property for their own need, and that they cannot use the property or benefit from it if the Salah family remained in it, since the entrance to the room and apartment is shared, and there are no utilities in the room - as the Elad Association claims.

Izzat Salah said: "We were subjected to financial temptations and harassment during the past years in an attempt to give up our house in which we lived. This house is close to the Old City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque; we cannot leave it. We tried in every way to protect it from settlers, but the courts ruled in favor of the settlers. "These are false and unjust decisions, and we will remain steadfast in our home."

( Report issued by Wadi Hilweh Information Center, 15 September 2020)