‘Israel’ forces Palestinian to self-demolish own house in Jerusalem
Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday night forced a Palestinian resident to self-demolish his own house in Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood, south of the occupied city of Jerusalem.
At the order of the Israeli occupation municipality, Jerusalemite Ameer Rabaia’a self-demolished his own house in Jabal al-Mukabber to avoid paying an additional fine in exorbitant demolition costs to the Israeli municipality (the staff and the police) if it carried out the demolition.
"كان صعب كثير علي إني أهد بيتي بإيدي".. المقدسي أمير ربايعة من جبل المكبر بالقدس يتحدث لـ #القسطل عن قرار الاحتلال إجباره على هدم منزله بيده" pic.twitter.com/Fc5K9Cy1EF
— AlQastal القسطل (@AlQastalps) November 30, 2021
He said he received a demolition order by the Israeli Occupation Court, under the pretext of building without a permit, that he must self-demolish his own house.
He added that he was forced to carry out the demolition himself to avoid paying an additional fine in exorbitant demolition costs to the Israeli municipality.
The owner of the house, who was supposed to be a new groom, said he delayed his wedding as he has no house now following the demolition.
He said he spent 3 years building this house to live in with his wife and have a family, but the occupation destroyed all his dreams.
“It was very hard for me to self-demolish my house which I built with my hands,” he said.
Using the pretext of illegal building, ‘Israel’ demolishes houses and structures on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem.
At the same time, the Israeli occupation municipality and the occupation government built tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem for Jews with a goal to offset the demographic balance in favour of the Israeli settlers in the occupied city.
‘Israel’ has been moving settlers into the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhoods since the 1980s. This has resulted in numerous human rights violations, including the forced displacement of Palestinian residents and home demolitions.
Hundreds of Palestinian families are being threatened with forced displacement and house demolitions by illegal settler groups, fully supported by the Israeli government.
There are nearly 700,000 Israeli settlers living in 256 illegal settlements and outposts scattered across the occupied West Bank, including the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.
The Israeli court had previously rejected many appeals filed by the residents of Jerusalem to stop demolitions and forced displacement.
