Planning, Restrictions Building Land Permits Confiscation on Use and and Home Access Demolitions Introduction Article 212 states: Where an offence under this Chapter has been committed in respect of any building and, if any person had been convicted thereof, the Court would have been competent to order as provided in section 205, the Court may so order even without any person having been convicted as aforesaid, provided one of the following applies: (1) The person who committed the offence cannot be found; (2) It is impossible or impracticable to serve a summons upon him; (3) The person who was the owner of the building at the time the offence was committed, and who committed it, is no longer the owner thereof; (4) It cannot be proved who committed the offence; (5) The person who committed the offence has died or is not punishable for reasons which do not make the act legal. Fakhri Abu Diab - Silwan, East Jerusalem 425 Al-Bustan is a neighborhood in the village of Silwan. It covers an area of 57 dunums. There are 88 housing structures under threat of demolition in the neighborhood in which around 1000 residents are directly affected. I live in my house with my wife, my two sons and four grandchildren. The house is located in the northern area of Al-Bustan, which was built before 1962 since I was born in this house on the 8th of February 1962. In this neighborhood, all estates are private property of the residents and their ownership over the lands is registered in the Ottoman archives (tabou) and in the British records: in our case there is no dispute over the ownership. The Municipality claims that it wants to qualify the neighborhood and improve our living conditions by building a garden (The Kings Garden), which means that we will have a garden instead of our houses - we will be homeless. Near Al-Bustan there is a colony called “City of David” and this area of Al-Bustan is called “The King’s Garden”. The Municipality wants to incorporate this area into the colony. Both of these two areas are part of the “Holy Basin” covering all the area that goes from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to Al-Bustan, and which the Municipality had designated, during the 1970s, as “Green Zones” or “Open Public Areas”. These are areas in which Palestinians reside. Demolition orders On the 6 November 2005, I received from the Municipality of Jerusalem, the first 425 Fakhri Abu Diab, ‘Al Bustan, Silwan - East Jerusalem’, interview by BADIL, March 2013. 119