Source: http://jcpa.org/article/the-global-epidemic-of-illegal-building-and-demolitions-implications-for-jerusalem/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 06:57:13+00:00

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In recent decades, municipalities and governments in all parts of the world have struggled with illegal building. However, compared with the incessant denunciation of rather infrequent demolitions by the Jerusalem Municipality, there has been nearly a complete lack of publicity when other governments demolish illegal structures.
Those who complain that many Arabs cannot afford housing in Jerusalem ought to recognize economic reality; Jewish residents of Jerusalem who also cannot afford the high cost of housing find it necessary to move to the periphery of the city where housing is more affordable.
In New York, nobody would excuse or tolerate people building illegally in Central Park, whatever their attachment to Manhattan or however large their family.
Even the Palestinian Authority has demolished houses constructed illegally.
Urban development, in the modern sense, requires painstaking urban planning.1 One American judge described the planning process as bringing to bear “the insights and the learning of the philosopher, the city planner, the economist, the sociologist, the public health expert and other professions concerned with urban problems.”2 Urban planning is not something unique to Jerusalem or Israel, but a burgeoning, worldwide trend. Likewise, the use of demolition as a tool to enforce the planning code is a routine enforcement measure widely used in the United States and elsewhere around the globe.
If urban planning is to have any chance of successful implementation, it must be accompanied by efforts to educate the public as to its importance. If people understand the reasons for urban planning, they will be far less likely to violate legal construction standards and will likewise make their objections known when their neighbors build illegally. Even where efforts are undertaken to publicly explain the desirability of planning, some individuals will inevitably disregard the law for pecuniary or other benefits. In order to protect the interests of the public at large, and indeed the very future of the city, authorities must respond to such challenges, by fining offenders, demanding the removal of illegal structures, and, if nothing else can preserve the integrity of the planning scheme, demolishing illegal construction.
Here we will consider the implications of urban planning enforcement efforts in Jerusalem in light of the wider picture in the United States and in other cities around the world.
During the past decade, illegal building in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods has erupted into an urban planning problem of enormous proportions. The illegal construction often takes the form of complete buildings, constructed on land that is not owned by the builder, such as that which is designated for public services (social services, community centers, schools, public parks, religious buildings, etc.15), as well as streets and highways.16 Often the illegal structures are designed without the input of a licensed architect or engineer. Such buildings likely fail to meet standard safety codes, thereby presenting a danger to inhabitants, visitors, and neighbors.
During the period 1996-2001, Jerusalem municipal inspectors reported nearly 4,000 building violations in Arab neighborhoods.17 Experts who study aerial photographs believe this number represents only 30 percent of the phenomenon.18 Despite the staggering number of violations, the Jerusalem Municipality has been extremely reluctant to demolish illegal structures in Arab neighborhoods. Only when no other options exist, the city issues a demolition order that requires no fewer than five signatures, from the local inspector up to and including the mayor. A demolition costs the city an average of 50,000 to 60,000 New Israeli Shekels (approximately $10,000 to $12,000 U.S.) each.19 Because of this, the number of demolished structures in Arab areas, even according to figures published by the Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics (excluding what they refer to as “tents and barracks”) for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999 was only 28, 31, and 36 respectively.20 Nonetheless, one who follows the sensational NGO and media reports, decrying Jerusalem’s supposedly flagrant demolition policy, would be led to believe that the scope of demolitions in Jerusalem is of an entirely different magnitude.
In recent decades, municipalities and governments in all parts of the world have struggled with illegal building not unlike that in Jerusalem. Many use demolition and some, out of frustration with the endemic nature of the problem, promulgate ordinances to “regularize” existing unlawful development. In contrast to the incessant denunciation of rather infrequent demolitions by the Jerusalem Municipality, there is nearly a complete lack of publicity when other governments demolish illegal structures.
UN forces in the autonomous province of Kosovo, Yugoslavia: The United Nations mission in Kosovo took on the illegal construction barons, seizing a building for demolition after a local official who tried to tighten building regulations was killed. One baron had continued building a five-story block on public land, despite having received a demolition order. At least 2,500 unauthorized buildings shot up in Pristina in the 15 months since the end of the bombing in Yugoslavia. According to a UN official, local organized crime rings are behind the building boom.
Those who complain that many Arabs cannot afford housing in Jerusalem ought to recognize the economic facts of life. Whether one likes them is irrelevant, as they are considered axiomatic everywhere but in the Arab sector of Jerusalem. Jewish residents of Jerusalem who also cannot afford the high cost of housing, including many large families, find it necessary to move to the periphery where housing is more affordable. Thus, in recent years, tens of thousands of Jews have been “driven” from Jerusalem to its suburbs, including Mevesaret Zion and Ma’aleh Adumim. Even the ultra-Orthodox, despite their deep religious attachment to the city, have left Jerusalem in droves for communities like Beitar and Ramat Beit Shemesh because they cannot afford to house their large families in Jerusalem. Indeed, the pattern repeats itself in urban areas worldwide. In New York, people move from Manhattan to Queens, northern New Jersey, or Staten Island. Whatever their attachment to Manhattan, however large their family, nobody would excuse or tolerate their building illegally in Central Park.
Another thought-provoking instance of demolition occurred in Gaza, under the rule of the same Palestinian Authority that attempts to turn every instance of demolition in the Arab areas of Jerusalem into an international incident. According to one report in the Washington Post, Palestinian Authority bulldozers “flattened” Fatima Abu Suayed’s house, with all her possessions inside, because it was allegedly constructed “illegally” on “Palestinian state property.” According to the account, “a bulldozer plowed down more than 20 homes.”55 No mention was made of any legal process or safeguards. Mayor Aown Shawa explained, “In the recent period there is an increase in the number of illegal structures that damage the urban planning of the city.”56 Other than one small organization based in Gaza,57 none of the NGOs that regularly attack the Jerusalem Municipality and the State of Israel uttered a word of protest.
Modern cities have a right, indeed a need, to plan. They must do this to make delivery of public services manageable and affordable, to protect the environment, and in some parts of the world, including Jerusalem, to preserve their historical, architectural, and archeological heritage.
The public, which has little experience with international law, lacks the tools to filter out the plethora of bogus “international law” standards that NGOs have contrived to facilitate their attacks on the Jerusalem Municipality and the State of Israel. NGOs, often appropriating the propitious title of “human rights organizations,” reiterate their condemnations of Israeli policy ad nauseam. Their accusations are couched in the terminology of human rights law, humanitarian law, and international law, and fail to inform the public that the law they reference is soft (less than authoritative), ambiguous, and/or actually supports the municipality’s planning enforcement actions. Moreover, the NGOs that so quickly condemn Israel for “human rights violations” have not criticized the other governments mentioned for the demolition of illegal buildings in those countries.
In summation, illegal building severely mortgages the future of urban life worldwide. People who love their cities, regardless of their political views, ethnicity, or nationality, should unite to turn the tide against those who undermine their city’s quality of life with illegal building. They should show zero tolerance for this dysfunctional scourge, wherever it manifests itself.
* This Jerusalem Viewpoints is revised and adapted from the author’s book Illegal Construction in Jerusalem: A Variation on an Alarming Global Phenomenon. The book was published in 2003 by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and may be purchased via its website http://www.jcpa.org. The author expresses his indebtedness to Naomi Slotki for her creative input, including research and editing, and to Mike Dacks, David Hessing, David Dabscheck, Erica Hirsch, and Andrew Joseph for their tireless contributions to this study.
1. Interview with Z. Uri Ullmann, Director of Division for Strategic Planning and Research of Jerusalem Municipality, in Jerusalem (Nov. 25, 2001).
2. Udall v. Haas, 21 N.Y.2d 463, 235 N.E.2d 897, 900, 288 N.Y. 888, 893 (1968).
3. Richard G. Heerdegen, Land Use and Planning: Readings in Regional Development 68 (1967).
4. See Claude Levi-Strauss, “Crowds,” 15 New Left Review 3-6 (1962).
5. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 7 (1989).
6. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 12 (1989).
7. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 15 (1989).
8. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 15 (1989).
9. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterhwaite, Squatter Citizen 26 (1989).
10. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 98 (1989).
11. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 98 (1989).
12. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 86 (1989).
13. Hernando De Soto, The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World (2002).
14. Jorge E. Hardoy & David Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen 100 (1989).
15. Interview with Uri Bar Shishat, Director of Policy Planning Department of City Engineer of Jerusalem Municipality, in Jerusalem (Nov. 25, 2001).
16. Interview with Shalom Goldstein, Advisor to Mayor of Jerusalem Municipality for East Jerusalem Affairs, in Jerusalem (Dec. 6, 2001).
17. Graphic Information Systems, A Summary of All Activities that Take Place in the Building Inspection Department, Furnished by Menachem Helman, GIS Director (Feb. 17, 2002) (Hebrew).
18. Letter from Ehud Olmert, Mayor of Jerusalem Municipality to Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister of Israel (Apr. 23, 2001).
19. Interview with Micha Bin-Nun, Director of Licensing and Inspection Department of Jerusalem Municipality, in Jerusalem (Dec. 31, 2001). The estimate of 500,000 NIS was given for the Kawasme case, which was appealed four times all the way to the Supreme Court of Israel. Each time, heavy equipment and scores of security personnel were sent out to demolish the illegal structure.
20. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Demolished Houses by Selected Indicators, 1997-1999.
21. Will Rogers, “Illegal Home Addition Will Be Torn Down,” St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 22, 1991, p. 1.
22. William E. Farrell, “Lebanese Army Bulldozes ‘Illegal’ Homes,” NY Times, Oct. 9, 1982, p. 6.
23. Patricia Young, Joseph Lo & Mariana Wan, “Peak-hour Delayed by Protesting Squatters,” South China Morning Post, Dec. 15, 1994, p. 3.
24. Poona Antaseeda, “Department Store Closures: Illegal Buildings Remain Open,” Bangkok Post, July 3, 1999.
25. “Final Nod to Regularize Illegal Buildings,” www.ahmedabad.com/news/2k/nov/23building.htm.
26. Rotimi Ajayi, “Obasanjo Orders Demolition of All Illegal Structures,” Vanguard (Lagos, Nigeria), July 16, 2001.
27. “Nigeria Protests Against Demolition,” The News (Lagos, Nigeria), Oct. 19, 2000.
28. Douglas Jehl, “Qurna Journal: After 4,000 Years, It’s Time for Urban Renewal,” NY Times, Mar. 4, 1997, p. A4.
29. Elizabeth Riley, “A Portrait of ‘Illegality’: the Favela of Pavao-Pavaozinho and the Perceptions of its Residents,” http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/planning/dates/naerus/workshop2001/papers/riley.rtf (Feb. 23, 2003); see Julio Cesar Pino, “Family and Favela: The Reproduction of Poverty in Rio de Janeiro,” 37-38, 52-53 (1997).
30. The specific locales are identified at the beginning of each paragraph.
31. Radio Lebanon, “Lebanese PM Urges Halt to Normalization with Israel,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Part 3 Asia-Pacific, Pakistan, Organization of the Islamic Conference Summit in Islamabad, speeches, FE/D2876/S3, Mar. 25, 1997.
32. See Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel’s Response to the Report Submitted Pursuant to United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10/2 (Document A/ES/-10/6; S/1997/494), para. 18 (1998).
33. For a good general discussion of slum clearance as police powers, see George Lefco, “Finding the Blight that’s Right for California Redevelopment Law,” 52 Hastings Law Journal 991, 992-994 (2001) (“Because government programs to achieve health and safety goals clearly qualified as a public use, condemnation incidental to such programs would pass constitutional muster….By tying the legitimacy of redevelopment to slum clearance or blight removal, courts extended only slightly the powers local governments had long possessed to demolish.”). See also, Daniel R. Mandelker, “Housing Codes, Building Demolition, and Just Compensation: A Rationale for the Exercise of Public Powers over Slum Housing,” 67 Michigan Law Review 635, 639-46 (1969). Among the categories of structures that, by state statute, are subject to demolition are those that have fire hazards, those, which are unsafe (dangerous to health or life), and those, which are dilapidated, unfit or obsolete.
34. E.g., Pinecrest Lakes v. Shidel, Fla. App. LEXIS 13464, 795 So.2d 191 (2001). In this recent case the appeals court ordered the demolition of 40 newly constructed upscale apartments, worth in excess of $3 million (U.S.), that were deemed to be in violation of the county’s comprehensive land use plan due to their proximity to single-family homes. Ibid., p. 207. For further explanation regarding how growth management and land use plans coexist with the Takings Clause, see Philip A. Tierney, “Bold Promises But Baby Steps: Maryland’s Growth Policy to the Year 2020,” 23 University of Baltimore Law Review 461, 506-508.
35. E.g., Natale v. Schwartz, 151 F.Supp 2d 562, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7011 (E.D. Pa. 2001); e.g., Welton v. East Oak Street Building Corp., 70 F.2d 377 (7th Cir. 1934).
36. Daniel R. Mandelker, “Housing Codes, Building Demolition, and Just Compensation: A Rationale for the Exercise of Public Powers over Slum Housing,” 67 Michigan Law Review 635-36, 638 (1969). See also Berrios v. Lancaster, 798 F.Supp 1153, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10370 (E.D. Pa.1992) (holding, in partial reliance on Penn. Central Transpiration Co. v New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978), that the demolition of a home found in violation of housing codes is not a regulatory taking because no one has a reasonable expectation of occupancy in a place unfit for human habitation).
37. E.g., Pinecrest Lakes v. Shidel, Fla. App. LEXIS 13464, 795 So.2d 191 (2001); Daniel R. Mandelker, “Housing Codes, Building Demolition, and Just Compensation: A Rationale for the Exercise of Public Powers over Slum Housing,” 67 Michigan Law Review 635-36 (1969).
38. E.g., Polsgrove v. Moss, 154 Ky. 408, 157 S.W. 1133 (1913); City of Louisville v Thompson, 339 S.W. 869 (1960); Swett v. Sprague, 55 Me. 190 (1867); Harris v. City of Akron, 1997 Ohio App. LEXIS 3160 at 8 (Ohio Ct. App., Summit County, July 23, 1997) (“The City acts within its police power, not its power of eminent domain, when it inspects and condemns an unsafe building to safeguard the public”); Maxedon v. Rendigs, 9 Ohio App. 60 (1917); City of Saginaw v. Budd, 3 Mich. App. 681, 143 N.W.2d 608 (1966), rev’d on other grounds, 381 Mich. 173, 160 N.W.2d 906 (1968).
39. International Conference of Building Officials, Uniform Building Code, Vol. IV, Dangerous Buildings (1967); see International Conference of Building Officials, Uniform Building Code, Part I, Ch. 2, Sec. 203, Unsafe Buildings and Structures (1991).
40. American Public Health Association-[U.S.] Public Health Service, Recommended Housing Maintenance and Occupancy Ordinance, sec. 16.02.01 (Review ed., 1967).
41. International Conference of Building Officials, Uniform Building Code, Vol. IV, Dangerous Buildings (1967).
42. International Conference of Building Officials, Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings (1997).
43. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 937 (1999). Implementation of this rule has proven to be very difficult indeed. International Conference of Building Officials, Uniform Building Code, Vol. IV, Dangerous Buildings (1967); see International Conference of Building Officials, Uniform Building Code, Part I, Ch. 2, Sec. 203, Unsafe Buildings and Structures (1991). See also, Frank I. Michelman, “Property, Utility and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical Foundations of ‘Just Compensation’ Law,” 80 Harvard Law Review 1165 (1967).
44. See, e.g., City of Monterey v. Del Montes Dunes, 526 U.S. 687, 704 (1999) (“Although this Court has…[not] provided…a thorough explanation of the nature or applicability of the requirement that regulation substantially advance legitimate public interest outside the context of required dedications or exactions,…we note that the trial court’s instructions are consistent with our pervious general discussions of regulatory takings liability.”); Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984); Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 899 (1999). The blight of vacant buildings in a slum can be condemned under eminent domain. Note, “Hanging Out the No Vacancy Sign: Eliminating the Blight of Vacant Buildings from Urban Areas,” 74 N.Y.U. Law Review 1139 (1999).
45. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 909 (1999).
46. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 909, 937 (1999).
47. See Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 32-33 (1954); see Amen v. City of Dearborn, 718 F. 2d 789 (6th Cir. 1983).
48. See Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 94-111 (1999). In the United States land use control is regulated by state enabling acts. These acts express goals in general terms and authorize the local authorities to make specific rules (ordinances) and to administer such rules. The enabling acts allow two agencies to be created to deal with these matters: a planning commission to draft a master plan and detailed ordinances and a board of adjustment to deal with appeals from the decisions by the local administrator or officials. The Model Land Development Code, approved by the American Law Institute, a group of scholars, lawyers and judges, is one example of such a legal structure. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 96 (1999). The first efforts to impose order in this area arose out of the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act of 1926 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce Review, ed., 1926) and the Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1928 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce 1928). In recent decades a leading source has been the Model Code prepared by the American Law Institute. American Law Institute, Model Land Development Code (1975). Planning, however, is not universally appreciated. E.g., Andrew P. Morriss and Roger E. Meiners, “The Destructive Role of Land Use Planning,” 14 Tulane Environmental Law Journal 95 (Winter 2000); also see, e.g., Richard E. Klosterman, “Arguments for and Against Planning,” Readings in Planning Theory (Scott Campbell and Susan S. Fainstein 1996), pp. 150-69; A. Dahl & C. E. Lindbloom, Politics, Economics and Welfare (1953); Ruth Glass, “The Evaluation of Planning: Some Sociological Considerations,” in A Reader in Planning Theory (Andreas Faludi, ed., 1973), pp. 45-68.
49. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 899 (1999).
50. Richard E. Klosterman, “Arguments for and Against Planning,” Readings in Planning Theory (Scott Campbell and Susan S. Fainstein, eds., 1996), pp. 150, 159.
51. See Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 98 (1999). Sewage and water crises have led to moratoria on construction in some areas in the United States. See, e.g., Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Council, 535 U.S. 303 (2002) (finding a moratoria based on concern that building will adversely effect water level and quality in a lake not to be a taking requiring just compensation); Charles v. Diamond, 41 N.Y.2d 318, 392 N.Y.S.2d 594, 360 N.E.2d 1295 (1977). See Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 98 (1999).
52. See, generally, Jorge Enrique Hardoy, Diana Mitlin & David Satterthwaite, Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World: Finding Solutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America (2001).
53. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 94 (1999).
54. Richard H. Chused, Cases Materials and Problems in Property (2d ed.) 94 (1999).
55. Barton Gellman, “Palestinians Vent Their Ire Over Arafat: Gaza’s Jubilation on Achieving Self-Rule Turns to Frustration, Anger,” Washington Post, Feb. 27, 1995, p. A1.
56. Al Quds, June 9, 2001.
57. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights is, to the best of this author’s knowledge, the only one of these numerous rights groups that protested the Palestinian Authority’s demolition of several homes in Gaza City. Palestine Center for Human Rights Internet Website, “In Breach of a Ruling by the Palestinian High Court of Justice, the Gaza Municipality has Demolished Several Homes in Gaza City”; http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/1997/munic-h.htm.
58. Apparently to protect himself, Abu Saud directed his criticism at illegal building in Area B, where there is joint Israeli-Palestinian authority. However, the real problem of illegal construction, as Abu Saud well knows, is in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. He also knows well which political forces and whose money supports those who build illegally.
59. Azam Abu Saud, Al-Quds, May 13, 2001.
60. Interview with Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al Quds University and Palestinian Authority Political Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs, in Jerusalem (Jan. 30, 2002).

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