year-old man with a disability lay at the entrance to the building of the National Human Rights Society (NHRS) in Jeddah Monday in protest against official threats to demolish his house in Khulais that was being constructed for him as a charity. Abdulmohsin Bakheet Al-Muhalbadi had to be helped to reach the gate of the building by his nephew because he could not afford a wheelchair. He has lived with a disability since he was nine. “I won't leave the building until officials listen to me,” he said. Chairman of the NHRS, Hussein Al-Sharief, came downstairs from his office to talk to the man. He has vowed to take up his case. Legal workers at the NHRS are expected to study the case in preparation for legal action. Al-Muhalbadi's house, which is still under construction, is to be demolished by an order from the encroachment committee at the Khulais Governorate, 90 km northeast of Jeddah. He said, the demolition order came to satisfy the “greedy hopes of future investments by influential real estate developers.” Al-Muhalbadi lives in a tent close to his house. “Now they are killing my hope of a decent shelter,” he said. The NHRS said it will contact the Khulais Governorate to either halt the demolition order or provide another decent shelter for the man. “The governorate should have engaged the Social Affairs office in the region before proceeding with evacuation orders,” Al-Sharief said. He added that this was a human rights matter. The Bir Charity Organization's office in Khulais said that the home of two rooms for Al-Muhalbadi is part of a charity project to move all poor tent dwellers into newly-constructed houses. Nine tents were spotted in the “now disputed” area. The charity organization had decided to build houses for them in the same location, said Hamza Al-Maghrabi, chairman of the charity organization office in Khulais. The disputed area marks the border between two local tribes. One of the tribal chiefs donated it for building houses for the poor, he said. One businessman had financed the construction of the new houses in late 2008, Al-Maghrabi added. The construction proceeded with the permission of the municipality, but then the other tribal chief claimed ownership of the land, forcing the charity organization to halt construction, he added. The Makkah Emirate, however, has ruled that the land has become “no-man's” land, or what is known as “government land.” Al-Maghrabi urged the beneficiaries of the houses under construction to submit a petition to the government to have the land granted to them. “If those poor people leave their houses, they will be homeless overnight,” he said.
