The Saed Family

Seven years ago, the father of the Saed family was suffering from kidney cancer. He needed a kidney transplant. Fortunately he was able to receive a kidney from his wife and two years later he had recovered. During the time of tests, dialysis, the transplant and recovery, his doctor recommended that he should spend most of his time in an upper level room so that he could get as much fresh air as possible. It was suggested that the family build a new floor onto their house in the Old City, so that the father could live here during his time of treatment and recovery. The new addition was not hard to build. Their house had a flat roof, already surrounded by two walls, from the houses surrounding. All the family needed to do was add a couple walls and a roof. Two years later, when the Saed family's father had recovered, his oldest son was married. The father moved out of the new addition and the son and his new wife moved upstairs. Five years later, the son and his wife now have two sons and another one on the way. 9 months pregnant and due in two weeks, the wife sits in the downstairs living room as her husband and other men from the family, brothers and cousins, demolish the room she has lived in since she was married. A few days earlier, the family had received an order from the Israeli government that if they did not demolish this addition to the house in 10 days, they would come and do it for them. To avoid the roughly $20,000 fee they would be charged for the Israelis to demolish their home, they took on the dangerous task of demolishing it themselves.

Home demolition is rampant in Jerusalem. The reason for home demolition is that Palestinians have built without a permit. To obtain a permit, however, is next to impossible for Palestinians. Only 13 percent of East Jerusalem is allotted for construction for Palestinian homes. Most of this area is already built up. This allocation is according to plans laid out for Jerusalem after Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967. According to international law, this annexation has never been recognized and thus municipality plans extending into East Jerusalem is illegal for Israel. Even in these limited areas, the process of applying for a building permit is extremely lengthy and costly. If you decided to go through this process, you are not even guaranteed to be able to build, only about 5-10% of Palestinians receive building permits each year.

The impetus to build, however, is great. The population of Palestinians in East Jerusalem has grown from 66,000 to 250,000 since 1967. To accommodate for a growing population it is necessary to build. There is also a strong desire to continue building in Jerusalem, and not in the West Bank. Palestinians must live in Jerusalem in order to maintain Jerusalem residency and their Jerusalem id's, which allow them free movement between the West Bank and Jerusalem. If one moves to the West Bank, you will lose your Jerusalem id and obtain a West Bank id. With a West Bank id, it is necessary to obtain permits in order to come into Jerusalem at anytime. It is thus understandable that families, who have long lived in Jerusalem, desire to build so that their growing families can continue to live in Jerusalem and maintain free access to Jerusalem.

So although homes are order to be demolished on the grounds that permits could not be obtained, the issue is far more complex than a bunch of belligerent Palestinians going against orders. It seems that there are deeper issues at stake and "...many Palestinians say Israel limits construction to push them out of East Jerusalem..." (Quotation from a New York Times article about Home Demolition. Read here).

With all these reasons in the back of my mind, Last Friday, I watched as the Saed family took sledge hammers to their own home in order to avoid the fee of Israel destroying it for them. I watched the women sitting on the couch, kleenex in hand as they watched part of their house be demolished and realized that they are now left with 13 people having to sleep in 2 rooms instead of 4. I watched a 9 month pregnant woman comfort her two boys with the thought that the room she has lived in for 5 years will not be home to her soon-to-be newborn child.

Another article on this topic from the Guardian: The Effect of Home Demolitions