Tag: House Demolition - Page 18 - International Solidarity Movement

Shelter and water tank demolished in the village of Tawayel

20th November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Tawayel, Occupied Palestine

Today, 20^th of November, the Israeli army entered Tawayel, a village next to Aqraba, south of Nablus, to demolish a well and a shelter belonging to two families.

At approximately 6:00 in the morning, for the third time this year, around 30 soldiers arrived with seven military jeeps and three bulldozers to further demolish this side of the village where families have been living and farming the land for more than 200 years. These demolitions come just three weeks after the same family was victim to the destruction of another water tank and sheep shelter.

The families, with help from the municipalities in Aqraba, have attempted to challenge the demolition orders in the Israeli court several times since 2009 without success. The only exception was when the Israeli army wanted to destroy the electricity system which was funded by the Belgian government. With the diplomatic pressure of the Belgium consulate in Jerusalem, the electricity network was allowed to stay.

The demolition of the water tank today will prevent the harvest of vegetables; the major source of income for the family who built the tank ten years ago. Their income is now restricted to their sheep, which used to drink water from the now demolished water tank. The rain season, which usually starts in November, is late this year, it will hopefully begin soon but the wells will not be filled. The destruction of the shelter leaves the sheep and goats without a safe place during the winter months.

The homes and agricultural structures that the families currently use in Tawayel need reconstructing, and in order to do this the farmers sent several applications for planning permission, they did not receive a response from the Israeli government and this is why the administration declared those constructions as illegal. To this date the Israeli government has not approved any plans for refurbishment in Tawayel and therefore it is most likely that the families cannot build new water tanks and shelters without repeated demolitions.

Home demolitions in this village are strategic. Tawayel is located adjacent to the Jordan Valley in Area C where the soil is very fertile, provided that the farmers have access to water. Israel has many so called “economical settlements” in the Jordan Valley which produce vegetables and fruits for export, and these continue to expand, encroaching on Palestinian land.

According to international laws and the Geneva Convention, these settlements are illegal, but European countries still import products from these settlements. This summer the European Union issued guidelines to restrict commercial relations with Israeli settlements, it has yet to be seen whether this will have any impact.

Demolition order in the village of Tawayel

29th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Tawayel, Occupied Palestine

A family after their home was demolished

Today, Tuesday 29th October, Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Tawayel in the early hours of the morning to demolish several buildings and a water reserve. The demolition continued into the afternoon, where two international activists were detained before being released shortly after.

Early this morning at around 5am, the Israeli army arrived in Tawayel with several military jeeps and three bulldozers. They began by demolishing a sheep enclosure before continuing to destroy the house of one farmer. The former home of this family was completely destroyed, but Israeli forces then demolished a water reserve. This means the soldiers removed the water supplies for several families and their animals in the area.

When Israeli forces continued in their demolition by moving their focus to another house, used as a storage room, four international activists sat in front of the bulldozer to try to prevent the demolition. Several Israeli soldiers and border police told them to leave and when they refused, took one French activist and pushed her into an army jeep. Shortly after this, border police grabbed a German activist, handcuffed him and placed him in the military jeep. The farmers and the internationals then had to watch, while the Israeli army destroyed the storage room. After they were finished, they released the activists, without taking their passports or even their names.

Tawayel is a village close to Aqraba. The landscape is mainly desert, which makes it difficult for the farmers in the area to build a structured water supply. The village is Area B, but many farmers are living outside of the village, where there is more space for their sheep and animals. These farmers and their families have been living in this land for generations, though the army declared it Area C. Most of the houses the farmers are living in are quite old and in the last few years they constructed infrastructure to simplify water supply, they also built new shelters for their sheep in order to protect them from the summer sun, the cold in the winter and wild dogs. For these new buildings the farmers sent several aplications for planning permission, they did not receive a response from the Israeli government and this is why the administration declared those constructions as illegal.

This kind of structured demolition has happened before in Tawayel and the harassment from the Israeli army is ongoing, although they have never bothered to answer the permit requests from the farmers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx9YJTsK8

Qusra demolition orders: “If they destroy this house, where will we go?”

7th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Qusra, Occupied Palestine

On Wednesday July 3rd the Israeli army entered the village of Qusra, south east of Nablus, issuing eleven demolition orders on houses and buildings. At 9am two army jeeps arrived at the home of Seqer Musbah and presented him with demolition orders for the house he had built for his brother and family five years ago. When he tried to speak with the army commander he was told, “Don’t talk to me, talk to the court.”

Home of newly married couple Yusef and Sundis Rizek, now under demolition order (Photo by ISM)

All the houses and buildings were built at least five years prior, some as long as ten years ago and are spread across different parts of the 5000 population village. The village is classed as Area B and thus under Palestinian civil control. The orders though state that the houses are in Area C and therefore under full Israeli civil and security control despite a number of owners getting permission from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to build there, on the understanding their properties were in Area B.

A 2012 report from the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, Demolishing Homes, Demolishing Peace states, “Israeli officials explain this type of demolition by stating that Palestinians are violating the zoning and planning laws and that the demolitions are merely law enforcement.” In fact, home demolition is used as a tactic by the Israeli authorities control the expansion of Palestinian villages, with the wider aim of ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Musbah’s family have lived on the land in question since 1965 and in 1995 had demolition orders on a neighbouring house also belonging to the family. The family took the case to court and ended up paying 10,000 shekels to the Israeli government to stop the demolition orders. When looking for the paperwork from 1995 in a briefcase full of documents, Musbah referred to it as the “bag of troubles”.

Yusef and Sundis Rizek, a newly married husband and wife also have demolition orders on the house they share with Yusef’s sister, her husband and four children. The family have lived in the house for ten years and had planned to build further on the land to house more family members. They had permission from the PA to build the house and stated in disbelief, “Why did they not come to talk to us when we started to build the house? Why now? Where will we go if the house is destroyed? We spent all our money on the house and land. We have no other place and no more money. If they destroy this house, where will we go?”.

PA planning permission for Qusra home now under demolition order (Photo by ISM)

A month prior, in June, twenty agricultural buildings in Qusra donated by a foreign European government also had demolition orders issued against them. The village not only faces constant harassment from the Israeli government but also from settlers and the Israeli army who protect them. Settlers from the nearby illegal outpost of Esh Kadesh regularly attack the village injuring locals, damaging land and property.

One local stated, “The Israeli army, government and Shin Bet. All of them work together. Now all the time they attack. Why now? We are strong. They see this, so they want to.” The villagers have collectively hired a lawyer in Jerusalem to work on the case in court, though none will be able to attend the proceedings there as permission is routinely denied to the majority of Palestinians to travel to the city. Even though Musbah’s family have documents proving their house was built in Area B, he has chosen not to play solo with this potential advantage but to fight collectively because, as he said : “We are one people, and this land is the collective property of the Palestinian people, we will speak with one tongue.”

House demolitions leave four families unsheltered in Khirbet ‘Atuf

2nd July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Khirbet ‘Atuf, Occupied Palestine

On Thursday 27th June, beginning at 9 AM, Israeli military bulldozers demolished the homes and structures of four families in the village of Khirbet ‘Atuf, a shepherding village east of Tammun in Tubas Governorate. One man was taken to the hospital in Nablus after being physically beaten while attempting to protect his family from Israeli soldiers. Another man had his vehicle confiscated by Israeli authorities, and the total cost of his lost property totals $13,000 USD, not a small sum for a shepherding family. While Israeli authorities usually provide demolition notices to the families whose homes they are destroying, these families were given none. Other villagers fear that the demolitions of their own homes may come without notice at any moment.

Demolished makeshift houses (Photo by ISM)

The village, which is located in Area C and therefore under complete Israeli military and civil control, is no stranger to home demolitions. All four families whose homes were demolished on Thursday have had their homes demolished at least two previous times, and international aid agencies have provided temporary tents for the families to sleep in. The people are facing health problems from excessive heat exposure, and in some cases their sheep also no longer have protection from the sun – their shelters having also been destroyed.

The landscape of the village offers one of the most chilling images of Israeli apartheid. The villagers who has been prevented from farming their land by the Israeli military is dry, brown, mostly barren of vegetation and repeatedly subject to home demolitions; while Beqa’ot, the illegal Israeli colony directly adjacent to the village, is green, well-off, and receives the perpetual support, funding, and protection of the Israeli state and military.

Weekly military training exercises occur in the village, and the residents are forced to leave their homes during the duration of these exercises by the military. Unexploded ordnance (UXO), which the Israeli military is infamous for leaving behind during its 2006 war with Lebanon and the US military during its imperialist war in Vietnam, Laos, and, Cambodia, has been left behind in the village as a result of these military exercises. When these bombs are disturbed incidentally, they explode, and have caused thirty villagers to lose their limbs. Since 1970, fourteen villagers have died as a result of these exercises.

When asked what they will do next, the families whose homes have been destroyed said that they are seeking outside financial assistance to rebuild their homes.

Family furniture left without shelter (Photo by ISM)

Army to Duma: “Stop building!” Duma to army: “We’ve built already”

24th June, 2013 | International Women’s Peace Service & International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Duma, Occupied Palestine

Wahid's house. (Photo by ISM) — Wahid’s house. (Photo by ISM)

On Thursday 20th June, Israeli soldiers and border police handed out “stop building” orders to 11 buildings in the village of Duma, southeast of Nablus.

The papers state that owners of the targeted buildings, which include family houses and a furniture factory, must stop construction because “it is forbidden to build” in that area. Villagers are ordered to apply for building permits at the illegal Israeli settlement of Bet El (which is also the headquarters of the Israeli Civil Administration); they are given 30 days to do so.

As is the case with most other villages in the occupied West Bank, the built-up area of Duma is declared Area B (under Palestinian civil and Israeli military administration, according to the Oslo Accords), while around 95% of the village’s land is Area C (under Israeli civil and military control). All buildings recently given “stop building” orders are in Area C; most of them are already fully built.

Among them is a fully functioning furniture factory constructed 2.5 years ago; it employs 25 people from the village, most of whom are the main breadwinners in the family. The factory was given a “stop working” order, while its adjoining office building – a “stop building” paper. The majority of its production is sold in Israeli markets. It took the owner of the factory two months of daily knocking on institutional doors to attain a document recognised by both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities stating that he is the legal owner of the land he’s built on (29 dunums in total). He received the “stop building” order nevertheless, and is now ready to fight his case in courts.

So is Wahid, a father of four, whose house is right next to the factory. The youngest of his children is only one-and-a-half; Wahid’s family house was built 2.5 years ago. Last Thursday Wahid was not at home when the Israeli soldiers and border police were handing out their orders; he found the paper, in Hebrew and Arabic, under a rock at the entrance of the house. “I’m not afraid,” Wahid said. “This is my house and I will continue living here.”

“In the end, this is our land and so we can build here,” a local resident told ISM. “It’s dangerous, yes, but we build anyway.” In 2008, the Israeli army handed similar “stop building” orders to several other villagers in Duma; people built homes for their expanding families nevertheless; those cases are still stuck in Israeli courts.

Duma experienced its latest demolitions some 20 years ago. Villagers speculate that Israel has not yet demolished new “forbidden” buildings because of Duma’s geographical location: thanks to the rocky terrain, there are no nearby illegal settler colonies whose interests Duma would supposedly be threatening.

The reasons for such harassment as the recent “stop building” orders are thus threefold: intimidation of Palestinian population; explicit showcase of Israeli power and control over the territories it occupies (“They came to let us know that they are here, that they have the power,” a local resident commented); and money.

Applying for a building permit is a highly costly affair. Gathering all the necessary documents and paying the lawyers’ expenses in building permit cases which habitually drag on for years (with absolute majority ending in negative outcomes) can easily cost NIS 10,000 (US $2,800). “And that’s just the beginning,” said one resident who was given the “stop building” order. That’s why many families build houses on their own land without any permits from the occupation authorities. “We need to live somewhere, don’t we?”

The Israeli army has also tried to deny Palestinian houses in the outskirts of Duma to be connected to electricity and water. Pressure from the Red Crescent led to the electricity cables finally being installed; negotiations are still going on regarding the half-finished water project.

In the night, lights from several smaller illegal Israeli settler colonies and a military base in the surrounding mountains are visible from Duma. “Israel demolishes many Palestinian houses every year,” a Duma resident said, cracking the almost-ripe almonds on the land of his ancestors. “But they allow the settlers to build anywhere they want.”