Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center” SHAMS” issued its monthly observatory for the month of November 2020 regarding Israeli demolitions, confiscations, evictions and seizures against Palestinian establishments, whether religious, tourist, industrial, commercial, educational, official or agricultural, with a focus on residential ones. The observatory came under the title (The monthly monitoring report on demolitions and Israeli violations against Palestinian homes and installations). It is noteworthy that” SHAMS” Center has, since the beginning of the year, issued specialized observatories annually, semi-annually and monthly on this type of violations.
The monitoring report was based on a methodology based on field monitoring by the team and researchers of the “SHAMS” Center, who monitored and counted the Israeli violations against Palestinian installations during the period 11/1/2020 – 30/11/2020 in all West Bank governorates, taking into account the objectives of issuing this monthly observatory, and then work on analyzing, disaggregating and producing data in the form of tables, according to a comprehensive map of quantitative and qualitative analytical indicators.
According to the “SHAMS” Center, during the month of November 2020, the Israeli occupation forces targeted (214) facilities owned by Palestinians, whether by demolishing, confiscating, evicting, or distributing notifications with the intention of targeting these facilities in the future.
The most prominent violations centered on demolitions, which affected 134 facilities. (4) Of them, their owners were forced to self-demolish them under threat of fines and imprisonment. Meanwhile, the occupation forces confiscated and seized one facility in Khallet Hassan area of Bidya municipality in Salfit governorate.
On 11/4/2020, they forced (13) families of residents of the Al-Burj and Al-Matalia areas in the northern Jordan Valley to leave their residential tents from 8:00 until 18:00 on the same day under the pretext of carrying out military exercises, which constitutes a temporary evacuation.
In terms of notifications, the occupation forces notified (79) facilities for demolition, confiscation, or eviction, most of them are residential, in addition to other commercial and agricultural facilities.
The first indicator focused on the distribution of the facilities that were targeted by demolition, confiscation, eviction, or notifications according to their type, which this month included houses and residential rooms: (35) establishments, Residential Barracks: (29) establishments, Residential tents (62) establishments, Residential Caravans: (11) facilities, sanitation rooms and units: (2) establishments, water wells: (7) facilities, retaining walls: (3) establishments, commercial establishments: (7) facilities, car washers, barns and stockyards: (40) facilities, Warehouses: (6) facilities, rooms, caravans, barracks and greenhouses: (9) facilities, in addition to a wooden shed and stairs.
The second indicator focused on the geographical distribution of violations, monitoring the areas of targeting. This month, the order of the governorates targeted by the demolition was as follows: Tubas (84) facilities, Jerusalem (15) facilities, and Hebron (13) facilities. These three governorates came at the height of the attacks, in terms of demolition. In view of the notifications, whether of demolition, confiscation, eviction, or stopping construction work and other violations that prevent Palestinians from realizing their right to build, reconstruct and invest their facilities, the number of notifications reached (79) notifications in different regions this month. The notifications indicate directions for the localization of the upcoming Israeli targets of Palestinian facilities. The order of the governorates targeted by the notifications was as follows: Tubas governorate (33) establishments, Jericho and al-Aghwar governorate (17) establishments, and Hebron governorate (16) establishments.
The third indicator focused on the target population, since these operations that target Palestinian facilities do not take place in an isolated area from the population. The number of people affected by it during the month of November reached (84) at least, including a large number of children, reaching (45) children, and a number of women, the groups that suffer most in these cases.
The third indicator focused on the arguments used by “Israel”, the occupying power, in its attempt to legalize the crime. In November, the number of facilities that were demolished, confiscated, evacuated, or notified under the pretext of building without a permit in Areas C reached (188) establishments out of (214) establishments. One facility was targeted as a collective punishment against the families of those accused of resisting the occupation forces, and another one was also targeted under the pretext of its proximity to the security fence, and 4 facilities under the pretext of building on archaeological land, (4) Under the pretext of being near the military headquarters in the city of Qalqilya, while (18) facilities were targeted for evacuation under the pretext of holding military exercises.
The last indicator reviewed the operations of “self-demolition” and the persistence of oppression by forcing the Palestinians themselves to demolish their installations, foremost of which are their homes under threat of heavy fines. As the number of establishments that the colonial system forced their owners to demolish them this month by the overlap between courts, local authorities, police forces and the occupation army reached (4) facilities.
In the Jabal Al Mukaber neighborhood of Jerusalem, the occupation authorities forced the citizen Muhammad Qanbar and his son Attia to demolish their homes in the Qanbar neighborhood of Jabal Al Mukaber town, southeast of occupied East Jerusalem, in implementation of the Israeli occupation municipality’s decision, under the pretext of building without a permit. Citizen Muhammad Qanbar, his wife and two sons have lived in the house for 7 years, in addition to his son Attia and his wife in an adjacent house, and the total area of the two houses is about 170 square meters.
In the same context, the occupation authorities forced the citizen: Ayman Jaabis, in the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem, to personally demolish part of his business, in order to avoid paying heavy fines if the occupation authorities carried out the demolition, under the pretext of not being licensed. These operations usually take place in the city of Jerusalem, where the greatest targeting is in the context of Judaization, and the wide influence of the various occupation authorities.
The occupation forces also forced Mohammed Sandouka, from the Wadi al-Jouz neighborhood in Jerusalem, to personally demolish his house, after notifying him earlier, in order to avoid paying heavy fines in the event that the occupation authorities carry out the demolition, under the pretext of not having a permit.
Finally, the monthly observatory was attached at its conclusion to a detailed table of all violations during the month of November of 2020, with details of the names of citizens or entities whose rights were violated as a result of the Israeli operations against Palestinian installations, whether they were demolition, seizure, confiscation, evictions, or notifications.