Middle East Monitor / October 29, 2022
A Palestinian resident of occupied Jerusalem was forced by the Israeli occupation municipality of West Jerusalem to demolish his house in the city’s business district under the pretext of lacking a construction permit.
The house owner, Azzam Abu Assab, shared that he had to demolish part of the house where his family of ten live on Salah Eddin Street, the main business street in East Jerusalem.
According to WAFA News Agency, this came after the Israeli occupation municipality issued him a demolition order and gave him only ten days to tear it down or pay fines exceeding $10,000.
Abu Assab extended his house to accommodate his growing family, but the municipality refused to give him a permit to expand it, forcing him to build without it.
The Israeli municipality forced another East Jerusalem resident to demolish parts of his house in Al-Tur neighbourhood of the occupied city for similar reasons.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem are being forced to tear down their homes after receiving demolition orders to avoid paying exorbitant costs to the Israeli municipality if it carries out the demolition.
Palestinians are often forced to build without permits because the Israeli municipality discriminates against them, refuses to issue them permits and places unreasonable conditions they cannot afford.
At the same time, thousands of housing units are built for Israeli settlers in the city on appropriated Palestinian lands that are made easily accessible to them.
