Pictures| ‘Israel’ forces Palestinian family to self-demolish own house in Jerusalem

Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday forced a Palestinian family to self-demolish its own house in Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood, south of the occupied city of Jerusalem.

At the order of the Israeli occupation municipality, Jerusalemite Mohammed Ja’abis 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.

The 6-member family said it received a demolition order by the Israeli Occupation Court, under the pretext of building without a permit, that it must self-demolish its own house.

It added it was forced to carry out the demolition by itself to avoid paying an additional fine in exorbitant demolition costs to the Israeli municipality.

The owner of the house said the house was built 20 years ago by his father.

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 occupied East 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 its citizens 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 East 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.