Pictures: Administrative demolition orders to residential houses in Silwan
Occupation municipality’s crews protected by Special Forces and borders control personnel raided on Friday the neighborhood of Al-Bustan in Silwan and distributed administrative demolition orders to several residential and commercial establishments under the pretext of building without a permit. Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC) explained that the occupation municipality’s crews took pictures of the neighborhoods of Al-Bustan and Bi’er Ayoub in general and several houses in particular and also took measurements of some streets and residential apartments and then hung administrative demolition orders on 7 houses. The center added that the residential establishments are owned by Odeh, Rajabi, Abu Shafe’, Badran and Zaytoon families where more than 60 people reside in which most of them are children. The center also pointed out that these establishments have been built since the 1990’s and building violation fees have been imposed on them. The center also added that the municipality hung an administrative demolition order on a wall build several years in the neighborhood of Bi’er Ayoub and a “cleaning” order on a land used by the locals of the neighborhood. The forces also raided a gas station in Bi’er Ayoub after removing its front gate when there was nobody at the gas station; they also hung an administrative demolition order on it. The municipality raided a bricks’ workshop in Bi’er Ayoub and asked the workers to present the business and profession licenses; note that the workshop was established in 1983 and more than 40 people live off this workshop. The center also added that the Israeli forces raided a house owned by Abbasi family in the neighborhood of Ein Al-Lozeh and asked the owners to put tin plates on the outside wall overlooking the street in order to prevent young men from throwing stones at the forces. WHIC explained that the Israeli departments (municipality, tax, property tax, collection agency, police, intelligence, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health) have been targeting the locals of Silwan for nearly a month by raiding their houses and arrested and interrogating their children in addition to raiding house to question about young men who are detained in the occupation’s prisons. The center pointed out to the daily raids on commercial stores in Silwan especially in the neighborhoods of Bi’er Ayoub and Ein Al-Lozeh to request the owners to license their stores and obtain permit to practice their profession from the Israeli departments. The municipality threatened to issue evacuation orders in case store-owners don’t follow up with the Israeli departments. Also, the center explained that the municipality randomly imposes high fines on merchants in Silwan for various reasons such as “signs do not match the required specifications”, “presence of empty boxes outside the stores”, “smoking inside the store or at the gates” and “displaying merchandise outside their stores”. WHIC pointed out that the occupation authorities recently confiscated 3500-NIS worth of “chicken” from merchant Abu Rajab Abu Sneineh and seized his vehicle and sales book under the pretext of transporting chicken in a private vehicle that is not equipped with a refrigerator. It is noteworthy that the merchant presented the legal purchasing documents to the “Agriculture and Health” crews but to no avail; they also imposed on him the fees of confiscating the goods. Also, the municipality crews recently imposed a 5-thousand NIS fine on merchant Izz Abdelrahim Barbar under the pretext of placing an ashtray on his store’s table.
