The “Greater Jerusalem” project repeats the catastrophe of the displacement of the residents of “Al Walaja”
1,000 Palestinians in the "Ain Jweizeh" neighborhood face a plan to demolish their homes
The residents of "Ain Gweizeh" are facing a second catastrophe.
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Representative of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Hassan Breijieh.
From the source
During the implementation of the occupation demolished 3 houses last November.
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During the massacres of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, Israel occupied large areas of the lands of the village of “Al Walaja”, located between the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, from the southwestern side, and to the northwest of Bethlehem, in the south of the West Bank, to rob its lands of 17,000 dunams once Again, in 1967.
After the looting and confiscation, only 3,000 dunams of the land of the village of “Al Walaja” remained, which is the area of the “Ain Gweizeh” neighborhood, which is currently inhabited by 1,000 Palestinians, after the occupation tightened its grip on the confiscated areas, and besieged the neighborhood with bypass streets and settlement outposts, along with Segregation wall.
Today, the residents of “Ain Gweizeh” are facing the same fate that the residents suffered during the catastrophe of displacement in 1948, as the occupation seeks to implement a plan of forced displacement targeting the indigenous people from their land, and the demolition of their 70 homes, under the pretext of building without permits, within the framework of the so-called settlement project In "Greater Jerusalem".
wide operation
During the current year 2022, the occupation plans to carry out a large-scale demolition operation in the “Ain Gweizeh” neighborhood, to implement its plans by including it in its settlement projects, after emptying it of its people. The head of the "Al Walaja Village" council, Khader al-Araj told "Emirates Today", in an exclusive interview, "In the footsteps of what is facing the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the Palestinian towns in the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, the Ain Jweizeh neighborhood is subjected to a massive demolition campaign, as it is exposed to a forced displacement scheme targeting Palestinian homes, Under the pretext of building without permits.
Although the “Ain Jweizeh” neighborhood is located between Bethlehem and the Holy City, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem handed its residents demolition decisions, because the occupation plans to include “Ain Jweizeh” within the Israeli settlement plan called “Greater Jerusalem”, and thus the Palestinians are deprived of the last land It belongs to the village of Al Walaja, which has come under Israeli control, according to Al-Araj, who says: “In the event that the occupation demolishes all the homes of the Ain Jweizah neighborhood, in order to implement its settlement plans at the expense of the Palestinians’ lands, the residents will be exposed to a major crime and a terrible tragedy, after they lose their shelter.” The only person and their property, and they are displaced from their land and village, to become homeless within their homeland.”
For his part, the representative of the Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission in the city of Bethlehem, Hassan Breijieh, stated that the occupation aims to displace the residents of the neighborhood and empty its lands, in order to establish a geographical link between the surrounding settlements in the city of Jerusalem and the “Gush Etzion” settlement complex, which is located on Palestinian lands south of Bethlehem city.
Brijieh says that “the occupation controls the lands of the village of Al Walaja, and considers it one of the parts of the Greater Jerusalem plan, and the rest of its lands will be linked to West Jerusalem, which is under Israeli control, through the Bethlehem countryside, which starts from the Ain Jweizeh neighborhood, by rail networks, Tunnels and bypass settlement streets.
legal battle
The residents of Ain Gwiza neighborhood have been waging a legal battle in the corridors of Israeli courts since 2016, to stop the demolition of their homes.
Lawyer Ibrahim Al-Araj, a member of the Committee to Follow-up on Threatened Homes in the village of Al-Walajah, says, “In 2016, 38 cases were submitted before the occupation courts, and they were collected in a collective case in the name of the people and the village council of the Ain Jweizeh neighborhood, to force the occupation municipality in Jerusalem to draw up a master plan for the Ain Jweizeh area specifically, Walaja in general, in order to obtain building permits, or to stop the demolition of homes.”
He explains that the petition asked the Israeli court to allow the residents of the homes threatened with demolition, to make a master plan for the village in order to carry out the licensing procedures, noting that this was rejected by the so-called District Committee in Jerusalem since 2018.
Al-Araj added, “In October of last year, the occupation court decided to refuse to specify an outline for the village, and the case was filed until the end of last December, which was again postponed until March 2022.”
According to a member of the committee to follow up on the homes of Ain Gweizeh that are threatened with demolition, the Supreme Occupation Court is scheduled to review, in February, decisions to demolish approximately 38 other homes.
It is noteworthy that the demolition of the houses of the residents of Ain Gweizeh neighborhood has been going on since 2016. Since that time, the occupation has demolished more than 40 houses, while its intensity increased during 2021, the last of which was the demolition of three inhabited houses belonging to the Abu Al-Tin family, which was carried out by the occupation mechanisms in The date of the ninth of last November.
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