House demolition in the Sur Baher neighborhood of East Jerusalem.Photostory: Volvo equipment used in house demolitions
Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada,
14 January 2008
The photographers of the group Activestills have documented Volvo equipment being used for the illegal construction of the wall and the settlements, and the demolition of Palestinian houses in Israel and occupied Palestine. Activestills gave special permission to publish some of the images on The Electronic Intifada to inform a wider audience about the systematic use of Volvo equipment in house demolitions in East Jerusalem.The Israeli government zoned almost all the undeveloped Palestinian land in East Jerusalem as "open green space" after 1967. The Israeli leaders decided to increase the Jewish population in East Jerusalem rapidly, to hinder growth of the Palestinian population and to force Palestinian residents to make their homes elsewhere. Withholding permission from Palestinians to build houses in East Jerusalem and the demolition of Palestinian houses fit in this policy. Houses built before 1967 and houses built without a permit more than seven years ago are considered "legal" by Israel. For all the other Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem Israel thinks it can justify demolition. West Jerusalem city engineer Shitreet gave a bizarre example of reasoning, "We can bar residents from entering their homes, even if we can't destroy them." And by sealing the homes and preventing the Palestinian residents from entering their homes, they can be demolished after some time as "abandoned" or "absentee" property. House demolition in Silwan, East JerusalemWithout any prior warning the house of Mahmoud Ahmad al-Abbasi in al-Sweih neighborhood in Silwan was demolished by Jerusalem municipality bulldozers on 16 January 2007 under the pretext of being unlicensed. The house gave shelter to six people. According to the Land Research Center, al-Abbasi said after the demolition, "The soldiers behaved terribly with the residents of the neighborhood. I wasn't in the place at the time of the demolition. I knew about the soldiers heading there, so I rushed back and asked the police officer and the representative of the municipality to show me the demolition order. They said 'we'll show you,' after which they handcuffed and transported me to the nearby police station until the demolition was completed. They even demolished the lower section of the house which was not included in the demolition order. The soldiers even beat a number of my relatives and people from the neighborhood and detained a number of them at the police station until the demolition was done."'
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