Building was home to some 90 people, who weren't given notice

Authorities tear down East Jerusalem apartment complex after years-long legal battle

Two Palestinians arrested after brawl between locals and municipal workers; residents’ lawyer says talks were underway to retroactively legalize building, municipality rejects claim

Authorities tore down a four-floor apartment building in Silwan before dawn Monday following a years-long legal battle over the property, sparking a brawl between municipal workers and Palestinian residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood.

The building — which housed a total of 90 people in 13 apartment units — was the largest residential structure to be demolished in the city this year, according to Ir Amim, a left-wing organization based in Jerusalem.

Authorities didn’t give prior notice before arriving at 4 a.m. to destroy the illegally constructed building, which residents had been struggling to retroactively legalize for over a decade.

According to residents and activists, the Jerusalem municipality had been in ongoing talks regarding a proposal to regulate the structure before the demolition took place. The municipality rejected the claim.

A fight broke out between residents and municipal personnel who came to assist in the evictions. In footage from the scene, a crowd of men in neon-green work vests could seen encircling and fighting with one of the residents, a man in a black coat.

The fight was dispersed by police officers, who accompanied municipal authorities to “maintain public order” during the demolition, a police spokesman said.

Officers arrested two people during the brawl, named by the Arab48 news outlet as Yasser Abu Sneineh and Amer Abu Khateb.

A police officer was injured when a rock was thrown at her, a police spokesperson told The Times of Israel.

“The municipality brought them [the workers] to help throw all the clothes out onto the street,” said Muayed Burqan, one of the evicted residents.

Observing the demolition from a nearby rooftop, 25-year-old Burqan told The Times of Israel that he wasn’t given the chance to take furniture and other heavier belongings from his apartment, and they were destroyed alongside his former home. “We have nothing now, I don’t know where I’ll go,” he lamented.

“The demolition is a tragedy for all residents,” Eid Shawar, a father of five who lives in the building, told AFP. “They broke down the door while we were asleep and told us we could only change our clothes and take essential papers and documents.”

With nowhere else to go, Shawar said his family would have to sleep in his car.

Legal necessity or political choice?

The destroyed apartment complex went up in 2011 in Silwan’s Wadi Qaddum area, on open land that had been zoned for leisure and sports use. It had been slated for demolition based on a court order handed down in 2014.

Together with neighboring landowners, the residents’ lawyer Juma’a Khalaila submitted an 11-dunam (2.7 acre) planning proposal to the municipality in 2022, with the aim of regulating the apartment complex.

According to rights groups, the proposal had been coordinated with the municipal planning department and was under discussion at the time of the demolition.

Residents “did everything the planning system requires: They organized, submitted a comprehensive plan, coordinated with the municipal planning department, and entered formal planning negotiations to legalize their homes,” said Sarit Kronish, an architect with the Bimkom organization, which advocates planning rights for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

“Demolishing the building while this process was underway was not a technical or legal necessity, but a political choice,” she said.

Khalaila said that the municipality’s legal adviser Moran Revivo was slated to meet with him at 10 a.m. Monday morning to again postpone the demolition order and discuss possible steps toward regulating the structure — but authorities came to destroy the building just hours before the scheduled meeting.

A spokesman for the municipality denied that such a meeting was supposed to take place and stressed that the building has been slated for demolition for over a decade.

“The residents were given extensions to carry out the order and various opportunities to find a solution, but they refused to take action and did not submit a request for an extension since 2020,” the municipality said in a statement.

The spokesman added that the municipality’s welfare department contacted eligible residents to offer assistance after the demolition, but did not elaborate on what that assistance entailed.

While there is no dispute that the building was constructed without a permit, residents and activists insisted that the municipality refused to consider other options aside from tearing down the structure, which according to them, is further proof of discriminatory urban planning policies toward the city’s Palestinian population.

“Had there been good faith on the part of the municipality, the building could have been legalized instead of destroying the homes of 13 families,” said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for Ir Amim. “The fact that the demolition was carried out just hours before a planned meeting to discuss regulation clearly illustrates the lack of such good faith.”

“This year alone, around 100 East Jerusalem families have lost their homes. A mayor who truly cared about the well-being of his residents would promote fair planning instead of investing in demolitions that only produce suffering,” he continued.

Burqan said that he and his family were unaware that the building was unlawfully constructed at the time they moved into the residence.

AFP contributed to this report.