Demolishing PEACE HOUSES DEMOLITIONS in East Jerusalem 2000 - 2010
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Dr. Meir Margalit DEMOLISHING PEACE HOUSES DEMOLITIONS IN EAST JERUSALEM 2000 - 2010 International Peace and Cooperation Center 2014 This publication has been produced with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the view of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung A publication by the International Peace nternational and Cooperation Center 2014 eace ooperation PO Box 24162, Jerusalem 91240 enter T +972 2 5811992 F +972 2 5400522 [email protected], www.ipcc-jerusalem.org CONTENTS Introduction...............................................................................9 Chapter 1 Demolition Data: Orders and Executions . 23 Chapter 2 Discrimination in the execution of demolition orders . 55 Chapter 3 The rational for illegal construction . 69 Chapter 4 The motives underlying municipality demolition policies . 103 Chapter 5 Legal tools for executing the demolitions . 119 Chapter 6 The apparatus for executing demolitions . 137 Chapter 7 The system that enables demolitions . 151 Chapter 8 The non-formal apparatus .............................................167 Chapter 9 The approach of the legal system to building violations in East Jerusalem ......................................................181 Chapter 10 Final remarks ...........................................................193 Selected References .................................................................195 TABLES Table 1.1 House demolitions in East Jerusalem since 1992 .....................24 Table 1.2 Data for administrative demolition orders issued for East Jerusalem in 2000–2010 ..........................................28 Table 1.3 Total of judicial orders (2000–2010) ....................................30 Table 1.4 Demolition orders issued since the turn of the century . 31 Table 1.5 Demolition orders compared with actual demolitions ... ...... ....... ..32 Table 1.6 The total number of demolition orders in force from 1967 to the present day ..........................................................34 Table 1.7 Indictments for disobeying a court order in East Jerusalem, filed to the Court of Local Affairs in Jerusalem ..........................35 Table 1.8 The number of applications for building permits submitted and the number of permits approved ........................38 Table 1.9 The difference in illegal construction and additional housing units in comparison with the previous year ....................42 Table 1.10 Fines imposed by the municipal court ...................................44 Table 1.11 The municipal budget for demolitions, 2000–2010 . ... ..... 45 Table 2.1 East Jerusalem vs. West Jerusalem demolition statistics ...................58 Table 2.2 East Jerusalem vs. West Jerusalem illegal construction ................59 Table 2.3 East Jerusalem vs. West Jerusalem percentage of violations that go on to become judicial or administrative demolition orders .........59 Table 2.4 Administrative and Judicial Demolition Orders issued and number of demolitions carried out ..................................60 Table 2.5 Number of Orders that the Mayor refuses to sign........................61 Table 3.1 Building ratios in East and West Jerusalem ................................79 Table 3.2 Amount of money that would have been required for providing proper infrastructure: 1994–2010 ..............................88 Table 3.3 Various expenses residents must pay in order to obtain a building permit .........................................................97 Table 4.1 Age demographics of Jerusalem, Palestinian and Jewish residents ........................................................108 FIGURES Figure 1.1 House demolitions in Jerusalem since 1992 ...........................25 Figure 1.2 Administrative demolition orders (2001–2010) ........................28 Figure 1.3 Demolitions carried out compared with administrative demolition orders issued ................................................29 Figure 1.4 Judicial Demolition Orders Issued (2000–2010) ......................30 Figure 1.5 Demolition Orders(Administrative, Judicial) ...............................31 Figure 1.6 Demolition orders, both administrative and judicial, compared with actual demolitions ......................................33 Figure 1.7 Indictments for Disobeying Court Orders ..............................36 Figure 1.8 The number of requests for building permits submitted and the number of requests approved ..................................39 Figure 1.9 Housing units approved and illegal construction .......................43 Figure 2.1 Demolitions carried out from 2004 to 2008 ............................62 Figure 3.1 Land assignment in East and West Jerusalem ..........................77 Figure 3.2 Planning process . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 91 Figure 3.3 The process for obtaining a building permit .............................91 Figure 4.1 Number of demolitions 1998–2003 ....................................109 INTRODUCTION THE CONTEXT AND PRACTICE OF HOUSE DEMOLITIONS House demolition is one of the most horrifying realities experienced by East Jerusalem Palestinians. Nothing can be more devastating for a family than losing its home, and with a third of the houses in East Jerusalem having been built without a permit, tens of thousands of residents live in fear of having their homes demolished. House demolition entails much more than the destruction of a physical structure. Years of savings go down the drain, personal property is damaged, and dignity trampled. The family may become dependent on charity, and the traumatic experience will follow the children for the rest of their lives. The Palestinians of East Jerusalem find themselves between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the bureaucratic procedure for acquiring a building permit is extremely complicated and often practically impossible. On the other, there is the sheer necessity of having a roof over one’s head. Normally, when the need for housing and the law are at odds, the courts rule in accordance with the law. Difficulties and complications confronting those who wish to build a house lawfully are so great that many residents are left with no choice but to do so illegally. Faced with the state’s insensitive approach, residents of East Jerusalem are forced to act as any reasonable person would in their place and build without a permit. They act just as the Jewish community did in Mandatory Palestine when the White Paper restricted Jewish immigration, the building of houses, and land acquisition. There is, however, one difference between the two ethnic situations. While the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine was driven by nationalist ambitions, residents of East Jerusalem build primarily out of necessity and less as part of a national struggle. This study focuses on the practice of house demolition in East Jerusalem, but it also deals with a much broader topic: control over space and its distribution 9 by the state of Israel. Israeli policies implemented in Jerusalem are only a part of a nationwide effort to consolidate the hegemony of the Jewish majority and reduce the Palestinian presence by preventing them from building on their own land. In the 1970s, a considerable part of Palestinian-owned land was expropriated for the construction of Jewish neighborhoods. Strict regulations were imposed on lands that could not be legally expropriated, in order to prevent Palestinians from developing them. This study is part of an extensive body of literature that has evolved over the past decade, dealing with political geography, or more precisely, the land policy in Israel. We refer especially to: the studies of Sandy Kedar, Eyal Weizman, Rassem Khamasi; Oren Yiftachel’s work, which focuses on the ethnocratic character of the state; the work of Steve Bollens dealing with the relationship between urban policy and ethnic conflicts; and the work of Yehuda Shenhav concerning Space, Land and Home, which is the title of his book, published in 2003. This study also touches on issues of public policy and in particular deals with the question of who is responsible for the demolitions, whether the political leadership or the professional staff. This study fits well with Michel Foucault’s theory on the mechanisms of discipline and punishment in Western society.1 It could be put in the much broader context of processes in which colonial societies seize control over land in occupied territories, for the control mechanisms in East Jerusalem are similar to those implemented for the expropriation of land by white settlers, whether in Australia, the United States, European colonies in India, Algeria, Tunisia, and more recently in Greece, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Estonia. In a certain sense, this book presents another chapter in the history of Jerusalem, for what is that city’s history if not a long sequence of construction and demolition, from the destruction of the First Temple to the recent destruction of the Shawamreh family house, which we will discuss later. Jerusalem, more than any other city in the country, has been rebuilt time and again, since King David defeated the Jebusites, through the destruction of the first and second temples, to Teddy Kollek’s demolition of the Mughrabi neighborhood in the Old City to make room for the Western Wall Plaza, each civilization has built on the previous one, and they still cry out to us. Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that house demolition has long been a key theme in writing its