IMEMC, May 12, 2011

Israeli soldiers, and employees of the so-called Regional Planning Committee, invaded on Wednesday at night Ein Jweiza area, in the Al Walaja town near Bethlehem, and handed demolition orders targeting seven homes.

The Palestine News and Info Agency reported that the orders state that the homes will be demolished within 48 hours under the claim that "they were built without obtaining a construction permit from Israel."

Some of the homes in question are inhibited, while the rest are still under construction. They belong to residents Fadi Mahmoud Abu Riziq, Atallah Mohammad Abu Riziq, Ahmad Khalifa, Mohammad Khalifa, Mahmoud Mohammad Radwan, Yousef Shihada and Adel Abu Srour, the Palestine News and Info Agency reported.

Saleh Khalifa, head of the Al Walaja Local Council, reported that the latest violation is part of years of illegal policies targeting Al Walaja and its residents as the Jerusalem Municipality wants to annex the lands into its boundaries after displacing its residents.

Al Walaja is being surrounding by the illegal Israeli Annexation Wall, while Israel has, so far, confiscated hundreds of Dunams of farmlands that belong to its residents to build sections of the Wall that would fully isolate the residents from their orchards, and from the rest of the Palestinian territories.

The army also bulldozed dozens of trees that belong to the residents due to the

construction of the Wall, and the illegal Israeli settlements.
The residents, accompanied by Israeli and International activists, are actively involved in nonviolent protests against the illegal Wall and settlements.

Similar to protests in several West Bank towns and villages, nonviolent protests are met with excessive use of force by the Israeli military leading to dozens of casualties, ongoing invasions, the kidnapping and illegal imprisonment of nonviolent activists.

Al-Walaja village was illegally annexed by Israel in 1949 but the residents were not regarding as Jerusalem residents and were never granted Jerusalem ID’s, while the military does not grants the residents construction permits for homes and their facilities.