Supreme Court Sustains Demolition Order for Mosque in Husseniya

07/05/2001

Today the Supreme Court rejected Adalah’s petition and ruled that an order calling for the demolition of a mosque in the village of Husseniya is valid and must be implemented.

Until 1996, Husseniya was one of tens of unrecognized villages throughout Israel which were declared illegal by the National Planning and Building Law (1965) when the lands on which they sit were re-zoned as non-residential and ownership was claimed by the State. Because the community did not have a place to worship, Husseniya’s residents built a small house to serve as their local mosque in 1996. The mosque, which is the only religious building in the village, and the only mosque within about 10 km, was certified as a mosque by Acre’s religious court.

However, the Local Planning and Building Committee submitted an indictment against the residents of Husseniya for building the mosque without a permit on land that was designated as “agricultural.” In 1999, the Magistrate Court in Acre issued a demolition order based on the Planning and Building Law (1965). The Magistrate Court relied on “demolition order without conviction,” a quick procedure which allows the court to order demolitions without holding people criminally responsible for constructing the building, and thus without proving that the construction was a crime.

In March 2000, Adalah filed an injunction to the Supreme Court staying the demolition. The injunction was granted, and Adalah then filed a petition to the Supreme Court requesting that the demolition order be revoked, and that the Ministry of Religious Affairs fund the mosque. Adalah argued that because the mosque is a sacred place, the Magistrate Court did not have jurisdiction to order its demolition.

In its final decision today, the Supreme Court stated that the demolition order is valid, as is the need to implement it. The judges added that the petitioners can apply for a permit to legally build another mosque in the village. Adalah will apply for a permit to legalize the existing structure, arguing that there is no reasonable cause for preventing its legalization.