Press Release

8 June 1999

On the 7th June 1999, the Israeli Authorities demolished the house of Mohammad Khader Abu Khdair (280 square meters) in Shu'fat (Al-Ashqariah) and the house of Yousef Zaied (600 square meters) in Beit Hanina. Since the beginning of the year housing demolitions have escalated in East Jerusalem as a result of direct orders from the Jerusalem Municipality. With a population of 210,209 East Jerusalemites and an average fertility rate of 5.4 [PCBS, 1997], the current housing situation in East Jerusalem does not meet the needs of the Palestinian population, thus residents are forced to build to provide for their housing needs. At the same time, due to the discriminatory practices of the Jerusalem Municipality, it is very difficult for East Jerusalem residents to obtain permits to build homes or build additions onto their current property. Thus, these two homes and property were destroyed by the Israeli government based upon the pretext that the owners undertook construction without building permits.

Al-Haq field workers reported that the Israeli government sealed all roads that led to the two houses in preparation for their demolition. This action escalated into physical confrontations between Palestinian civilians, the Israeli police and border guards. Omar Mustafa Abu Khdair was injured as a result.

The order to carry out these demolitions was issued in spite of a judgement pending in the Israeli High Court regarding the petition of Mohammad Khader Abu Khdair against the Jerusalem Municipality's decision to demolish his house. This confirms the continuing Israeli policy designed to prejudice decisions concerning the future of Occupied East Jerusalem by creating alternative facts on the ground in order to bias final status negotiations. This occurrence, other housing demolitions and land confiscations are contrary to international law, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention, according to which East Jerusalem is an occupied territory and Israel must respect the rights of its citizens as "protected persons" and respect its territorial integrity, including not altering the physical landscape.

Al-Haq stresses that Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem, and its attempts to alter the ethnic composition, physical character, boundaries and legal status of the city, as demonstrated in the Jerusalem Municipality's planning policies, violate not only the Fourth Geneva Convention but also the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC). Al-Haq calls upon the Israeli government to halt its destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem as a means to alter the physical and ethnic composition of the city, and to respect international law. Al-Haq insists that the appropriate international bodies, foreign governments, and regional powers as high contracting parties to the IV Geneva Convention hold Israel accountable, according to international law, for its discriminatory practices and disrespect for the universality and indivisibility of human rights.