4 demolitions in Jerusalem…freezing the demolition of the Al-Tur building
On Tuesday, the Israeli occupation municipality carried out 3 demolitions in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, while a fourth demolition was carried out by the owners of the home by a decision of the municipality.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem stated that the occupation forces, accompanied by bulldozers and municipality crews, began implementing demolition decisions in Silwan, Al-Tur and Jabal Al-Mukabber, for residential facilities. The forces closed the streets and areas close to the demolition. In Jabal Al-Mukabber, the demolition was carried out as the students returned to their homes, which led to obstruction of their movement and forced them to take alternative roads.
Silwan
The bulldozers demolished a residential room and its utilities, for Majd Halisi. He said: "The facility has been in existence for one year, and the municipality refused to license it. This area is targeted. They came today and implemented the demolition decision for the 70-square-meter facility."
Sultan Halisi started to demolish his house with his own hands and said: “I refuse to demolish it with my own hands, and about a month ago I emptied the house and refused to demolish it after the final decision to demolish it. Recently, the engineer asked me to demolish only the roof, which I did, but the municipality refused that and insisted that I demolish the whole house, which I rejected, especially to protect children from the danger of demolition and stones.”
Al-Tur
In the Al-Shayah area, the occupation bulldozers demolished the rest of the Burqan family’s building, “some columns and foundations,” noting that in the middle of last month, the family carried out the demolition decision for the building while it was under construction, but the bulldozers broke into the land and demolished what was on it.
Jabal Al-Mukabber
The bulldozers demolished the house of Atta Ja’afra, which houses 11 people, under the pretext of building without a permit. Ja’afra explained: “The house has been in existence since 2010, and after living in it for several months, the municipality issued a demolition decision, and court prosecutions started as well as and attempts to license and freeze the demolition decision, until the municipality issued the final decision last year."
Suspending the demolition decision
In the Municipal Affairs Court, a special session was held in the case of Al-Tur building, which includes 10 apartments, and after hearing the deliberations and the allegations of the defense staff and the public prosecutor, the court suspended the demolition decision.
Lawyer Medhat Dibeh - from the defense staff - explained that the allegations confirmed that the applicant, "Mustafa Abu Sbitan", had not been informed of the demolition decision over the past years, and his name was not mentioned in the indictments/fines imposed on the residents, and how the demolition of a building that consists of 10 apartments was issued, and none of the apartment owners were informed.
As for the public prosecutor, who represents the "legal advisor to the government", he said in the allegations that the tenth apartment they’re talking about does not exist, and if it did exist, the owner was informed of the demolition decision.
Dibeh explained that the judge was convinced of the allegations made by the defense staff, gave the public prosecutor 10 days for a final response, and suspended the demolition without setting a deadline.
