Destruction of agricultural greenhouses on an area of four dunums in Jayyous town / Qalqilya governorate

February 3, 2022

• Violation: destruction of greenhouses.
• Location: Jayyous Town / Qalqilya Governorate.
• Date of violation: 03/02/2022.
• The perpetrator: the so-called building inspector of the Israeli Civil Administration.
• Affected party: farmer Fouad Ahmed Hussein Ghoraba.

The violation details:

On Thursday morning, February 3, 2022, a large force of the Israeli occupation army, accompanied by the so-called construction inspector at the Israeli “Civil Administration”, raided the Al Sateh area to the west of the town of Jayyous, which is included in the Annexation and Expansion wall. Upon arrival the attacking force began a massive demolition and destruction process of four dunums of greenhouses by using a bulldozer.  The destroyed green houses are owned bythe farmer Fouad Ahmed Hussein Gharaba, 63 years old, from the town of Qalansuwah inside the green line. In the summer of 2021,  Mr.  Gharaba purchased a plot of land from a farmer from the town of Jayyous with the aim of cultivating it, and at the beginning of the month of January 2022, he received a military notice that includes an order to remove within 96 hours all the new structures that were built on it, in accordance with the military order No. 1797 of 2018. In turn, Mr. Gharaba assigned a lawyer to follow up on the matter, but the occupation, as usual, insists on rejecting the license application and, eventually, got the installations demolished.

It is noteworthy that most of the lands included in the Annexation and Expansion annexation wall, especially in the town of Jayyous, are widely targeted by the Israeli occupation with the aim of totally expropriating them by the de facto policy.

Over the past years, the LRC has monitored and documented the destruction of a large number of agricultural businesses there in order to achieve the aforementioned colonialist goal.

Legal Commentary:

The demolition of Palestinian homes and installations by the occupation authorities is part of their violations of international and humanitarian law, and the violation of the right to adequate housing for Palestinian citizens guaranteed by international law and international treaties presented by the following articles:

• Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “Destruction and usurpation of property in a manner not justified by military necessity and on a large scale in an unlawful and arbitrary manner is a grave breaches of the convention.
• Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1948 prohibits the destruction of property, as this article states the following: “The occupying power is prohibited from destroying any private, fixed or movable property related to individuals or groups, the state or public authorities, or social or cooperative organizations, unless the war operations inevitably require this destruction.
• Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.
• Paragraph ‘g’ of Article 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907 AD also warned against destroying or seizing the enemy’s property, unless the necessities of war necessarily require such destruction or seizure.
• Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, dated December 10, 1948 states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”.