The Violation: A decision issued by the Israeli �High Court of Justice� to demolish 47 Palestinian homes in the village of Al Sawiya and 13 Palestinian houses in the nearby village of Yatma.

 

 

 

The Affected: The Palestinian population of both Al Sawiya and Al Yatma villages in Nablus Governorate.

 

The Violator:  â��Committee of Building and Organizationâ�� in the Israeli â��Civil Administrationâ��

 

Date of Violation: 9^th of September, 2009.

 

 

The Israeli �High Court of Justice� issued on the said date a decision asking the Israeli occupation army to demolish 47 houses in Al Sawiy and 13 in Yatma. The houses have received previously Stop Work Orders under the pretext that they were built in Area C without an authorization from the occupation authorities. The decision requested a speedy demolition in response to a petition filed by a colonial organization.

 

The targeted houses in Al Sawiya are located in the vicinity of the village and not, by any means, near any colony or by-pass roads. As such, the demolition decision has no security dimension to it especially in light of the on-going and continuous expansion of the nearby colony of Eili (located 2 kilometers away from the village). The expansion of this colony has been non-stop in the past few years given the fact that its colonists have established six satellite outposts while Palestinians are not allowed such a �luxury.�

 

The 3,000 Palestinians of Al Sawiya live atop the small area of no more than 340 dunums that is classified as Area B according to the Oslo Accords. They are not allowed to build beyond these dunums as the rest of the area of the village is classified as Area C. Olive trees and almonds form the main source of income for a large number of Al Sawiya residents. In comparison, the colony of Eili rests atop 4,000 dunums of Al Sawiya lands along with two additional colonies, namely Ma�ale Labouna and Raheil.

 

The 41-years old Mr. Juma�a Saleh from Al Sawiya commented the following to Land Research Center (LRC)�s filed researcher: ' I sold my wife�s gold and added it to my lifetime savings to build my house. I have been living there for the past 7 years with my wife and four children. I won�t let anyone demolish it. I had no other choice but to build it here as I inherited the land from my late father. They are demolishing our houses while they continue to build in the colonies. They did not even receive a Stop Work Order despite the fact that they don�t own the land to begin with. It is our land. '

 

It has to be mentioned that a number of human rights organizations have appealed to the same court to get an injunction preventing the Israeli forces from carrying out the demolitions. Below are the names of Owners whose houses are threatened of demolition in Al Sawiyya Village

 

The village of Al Sawiya is located 16 kilometers south of the City of Nablus. Its overall area is 10,710 dunums of which only 310 are its built-up area. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the population of the village in 2007 was 2,393 Palestinians. Israeli colonies and by-pass roads devoured about 2,029 dunums of Al Sawiya lands including around 1,576 dunums by the colony of Eili [1].  

 

Al Sawiya villagers depend on rainwater and a spring to drink and irrigate. No medical services, mother-and-child center or even an ambulance present at the village.  There are three khirbets surrounding the village including the khirbets of Al Sawiya (located east of the village), Al Barqeet (located north east of the village) and Kamouniyya (located between Yasouf and Al Sawiya).

 

 

The village is located 11 kilometers south of the city of Nablus on the left hand side of the Nablus-Jerusalem main road. The total area of the village is 4,411 dunums of which 392 dunums are its built-up area. It is surrounded by four Palestinian villages; Al Sawiya, Yasouf, Beita and Qabalan. Its population is 2,853, according to the PCBS. The nearby colony of Rakhalim confiscated 25.7 dunums of the villagesâ�� lands [2].   

 

There are two main clans in the village; Al Najjar (from which the sub-clans of Hasan, Shihada, Abu Baker and Musallam branch) and the clan of Snouber (from which the sub-clans of Haddad, Oudeh and Muhsen branch)[3]

 

 

 

The colony was established in 1984 on the Ali Mountain. Its expansion has been accelerating since its early days. Currently, the colony rests atop seven hills belonging to the Palestinian villages of Qariot, Talfit, Al Sawiya and Al Lubban Al Sharqiya. The colony has a religious college, a hotel and a cemetery. The number of colonists living in Eili is 2058 and its built-up area is 3,360 dunums.[4]