118 Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians the demolition order. If an extension is granted, the success of it tends to be based on the possibility that the appellant could acquire a building permit on the basis of humanitarian reasons.421 A judicial demolition order usually requires residents to demolish their own homes. If they do not, residents will be charged for the Israeli authorities’ fees for bulldozing, hiring security and other imposed costs.422 A demolition based on Article 145 is no longer applicable after the five-year time period described in the law has passed. Judicial Demolitions (more than five years after construction) Judicial demolitions more than five years after construction are applied through Article 212 of the Planning and Building Law (1965). Article 212 is a statute that allows the State to demolish homes deemed “a public nuisance.” Demolition under Article 212 does not require an indictment as it targets the structure and not the individual home owner.423 The typical procedure for activating Article 212 is that the authorities will approach the court with a declaration that demolition of the illegal structure is within the public interest. Public interest is used as the justification for a demolition along with the structure being a “public nuisance”, often interpreted as synonymous with ‘Jewish purpose’.424 Almost any demolition can eventually be justified this way. The only way to combat the mechanism is to establish a presence in the official public record through a planning scheme. The basis for declaring a “public interest” is enshrined in the Master Plan: the State may even alter the status of an area slated for some other use (road or forest, for example) regardless of the preexisting infrastructure. 421 Society of St. Yves, ‘The Legal Framework - Jerusalem’. 422 ICAHD, No Home No Homeland, 39. 423 For example, after the seizure of East Jerusalem in June 1967, Israel demolished 135 homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of the Old City in order to expand the plaza and worship area of the Wailing Wall. The neighborhood was completely destroyed over the coming years after another 100 homes were demolished by the government who cited Article 212 as its legal basis. See: Ma’an News, Article 212: The Israeli Planning and Building Law of 1965, 13 March 2010, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ ViewDetails.aspx?ID=268387. 424 See: BADIL and COHRE, Ruling Palestine, 98; Al-Maqdese for Society Development, Home Demolitions in Jerusalem: A Means Toward Ethnic Cleansing (2011), 25.