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House Demolitions and Forced Evictions in Silwan Israel’S Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem Al-Haq - 54 Main Street 1St & 2Nd Fl

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House Demolitions and Forced Evictions in Silwan Israel’S Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem Al-Haq - 54 Main Street 1St & 2Nd Fl AL-HAQ House Demolitions and Forced Evictions in Silwan Israel’s Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem Al-Haq - 54 Main Street 1st & 2nd Fl. - Opp. Latin Patriarchate Saint Andrew’s Evangelical Church - (Protestant Hall) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS P.O.Box: 1413 - Ramallah - West Bank - Palestine Tel: + 970 2 2954646/7/9 Fax: + 970 2 2954903 www.alhaq.org The author would like to thank all the people who contributed to the preparation of this report, whether by sharing their testimonies, time, collaboration, advice or encouragement. Author Antoine Frère The author would particularly like to thank Omran Risheq, Editor Rania Muhareb Asala Abu Khdeir, Dr. Susan Power, Dalia Qumsieh, Anna Legal Review Suha Jarrar Fischer, Anna Khdair, Suha Jarrar, Hamza Dado, and Cover Art Natacha Borgogno Natacha Borgogno for their involvement and their invaluable Graphic Design Hamza Dado contributions to the preparation of this report, as well as Shawan ISBN 978-9950-327-63-4 Jabarin for his serene confidence and support of this work. Publisher Al-Haq - © All Rights Reserved Finally, the author would like to thank Sahar Abbasi, Susan Greene, and the whole team of the Madaa Creative Center in Silwan, for their incredible daily work with Silwan’s children and their tremendous contribution to this report by providing a unique perspective on the daily lives of Silwan’s children. Any quotation of up to 500 words may be used without permission provided that full attribution is given. Longer quotations or entire chapters or sections of this study may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the express written permission of Al-Haq. AL-HAQ 2020 TaBLE OF CONTENTS TaBLE OF CONTENTS Table of Abbreviations .................................................................................................. 6 4.1.4 Private Purchase ...................................................................................................................... 50 4.1.5 Intimidation ............................................................................................................................. 51 4.2 Legal Analysis ........................................................................................................ 53 1. Overview ......................................................................................................... 7 4.2.1 The International Protection against Forced Evictions ............................................................ 53 1.1 East Jerusalem ....................................................................................................... 8 4.2.2 Occupation and Private Property ........................................................................................... 55 1.2 Silwan ................................................................................................................... 10 4.2.3 The Prohibition on Population Transfer in Occupied Territory ............................................... 57 1.3 Applicable Legal Framework ................................................................................ 12 4.2.4 Forced Displacement and Demographic Manipulation .......................................................... 58 2 Planning Silwan ............................................................................................... 14 5. Violence, Harassment, and Arbitrary Detention: Children’s Routine in Silwan .. 60 2.1 How Israel Applies Domestic Planning Laws to Occupied Silwan ......................... 14 5.1 House Demolitions and Forced Evictions .............................................................. 60 2.2 A Prohibitive Construction Policy for Silwan ......................................................... 19 5.2 Violence, Harassment, and Intimidation by the Israeli Occupying Forces ............. 63 2.3 The Occupier’s Duty Towards Protected Persons ................................................. 25 5.3 Arbitrary Detention ............................................................................................... 66 3 House Demolitions ......................................................................................... 28 6 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 70 3.1 Serving Demolition Orders .................................................................................... 29 3.1.1 Administrative Demolition Orders .......................................................................................... 29 7 Recommendations .......................................................................................... 73 3.1.2 Judicial Demolition Orders ....................................................................................................... 32 3.1.3 Demolitions without Conviction .............................................................................................. 32 3.1.4 Imposing Unbearable Financial Penalties to Encourage Self-Demolitions ............................. 33 3.2 Legal Analysis ......................................................................................................... 40 3.2.1 Legal Consequences of House Demolitions under International Humanitarian Law ............. 40 3.2.2 The Right to Adequate Housing and to an Adequate Standard of Living ............................... 41 4 Settling Silwan: The Eviction Process ............................................................... 43 4.1 Mechanisms of Dispossession ............................................................................... 46 4.1.1 Declaring “Absentee” Property ............................................................................................... 46 4.1.2 Claiming Pre-1948 “Absentee” Property ................................................................................ 47 4.1.3 Confiscation for “Public Needs” .............................................................................................. 49 HOUSE DEMOLITIONS AND FORCED EVICTIONS IN SILWAN Israel�s Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem AL-HAQ AL-HAQ TaBLE OF ABBREVIATIONS 1 OVERVIEW Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading CAT Treatment or Punishment The city of Jerusalem enjoys a special protected status under international law.1 Yet, in 1948, during the Nakba, Israel illegally annexed West Jerusalem, forcibly CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women displacing and dispossessing around 60,000 Palestinians from the western part of the city and its neighbouring villages.2 In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, CESCR United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, further illegally annexing occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied Syrian Golan. Ever since, Israeli policies governing CRPD Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Jerusalem have sought to achieve one main goal: alteration of the character, status, and composition of Jerusalem in favour of an Israeli-Jewish demographic CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child majority, through the forcible transfer of Palestinian residents from the city. ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Located some 300 metres from the southern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Old City of Jerusalem, Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, ICERD Discrimination is a clear example of how Israel’s policies work towards forcibly displacing the indigenous Palestinian people from the city. It also exemplifies Israel’s practice ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of appropriating Palestinian land, and using the natural resources and cultural property therein, to change the narrative and alter facts on the ground. ICC International Criminal Court Israel, the occupying power, continues to escalate its forcible transfer measures, ICJ International Court of Justice which affect all Palestinians in Jerusalem. The United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that more Palestinians ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia were displaced in occupied East Jerusalem in the first four months of 2019, than in 3 ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross all of 2018. In 2019, Al-Haq documented the demolition of 64 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem by Israeli occupying authorities, which resulted in the displacement 4 OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of 236 Palestinians, including 122 children in the city. Given the continued risk of demolitions, forced evictions, and other Israeli policies targeting East Jerusalem, OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1 UN General Assembly, Resolution 181, 29 November 1947, UN Doc. A/RES/181 (II). OPT Occupied Palestinian Territory 2 UN General Assembly, Official Records, Second Session, Supplement No. 11, UN Special Committee on Palestine, 3 September 1947, UN Doc. A/364, para. 176. UN United Nations 3 OCHA, “Record number of demolitions, including self-demolitions, in East Jerusalem in April 2019,” 14 May 2019, available at: <https://www.ochaopt.org/content/record-number-demolitions-including-self-demolitions-east- jerusalem-april-2019>. 4 Al-Haq, “Al-Haq Field Report on Human Rights Violations in 2019,” 4 February
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