Details and pictures of demolishing the building of Amin Shweiki and displacing 9 individuals
The Jerusalem municipality bulldozers demolished on Tuesday morning a residential building for Hajj Amin Rushdi Shweiki in the neighbourhood of Al-Ashqaryeh in Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem under the pretext of building without a permit. A large Israeli force including Special Forces, police, borders police and police dogs raided the neighbourhood of Al-Ashqaryeh at 4 a.m. and then broke into the building of Shweiki and arrested its owner, Hajj Amin. The forces then emptied the house from the furniture, evacuated the residents and the large bulldozers proceeded with the demolition process. They also towed and seized two cars that belong to the family and confiscated some documents and a wallet that belong to Hajj Amin from one of the cars. Amin’s Wife explained that the building consists of 3 floors where 9 individuals live (Hajj Amin, his wife and 7 children where the oldest is 27 years old and the youngest is 12). She added that the building has been established for 10 years and in February of 2005 it was closed by a decision from the municipality’s court and was reopened in April of 2006 and a building violation fee of 340 thousand NIS was imposed; note that the family has been paying the fee and they only owe 40 thousand NIS. Wadi Hilweh Information Center was informed that the family’s lawyer was able to obtain a decision from the municipality’s court at 8:30 a.m. to stop the demolition of the house, but the intelligence quickly appealed the decision and they continued the demolition process at 9 a.m. and completely demolished the building. The municipality’s crews then hung a sigh saying “dangerous building, stay away”. It is noteworthy that the occupation municipality demolished two rooms and a sheep barracks in the neighbourhood of Jabal Al-Mukabber under the pretext of building without a permit, and also distributed administrative demolition order to seven houses in Silwan. The Israeli forces prevented press crews from getting to the area and recording the demolition process, and also prevented the students of nearby schools from passing by in several areas of the neighbourhood and forced them to take alternative roads to get to their schools.
