JERUSALEM, Wednesday, February 16, 2022 (WAFA0 – The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem today handed a Palestinian family in Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem an order to tear down its home under the pretext it was built without a permit, reported WAFA correspondent.

She said the municipality staff handed Ihab Husseini the demolition order which says he has 21 days to complete the demolition of his home himself otherwise the municipality would demolish it and force him to pay extremely high costs.

The Husseini house was built in 2017 and since then the municipality has been after the family fining them twice, each time $15,000 for allegedly illegal construction, before issuing the demolition order.

In a new report on Israeli demolitions in the occupied territories, the Office of the European Union Representative in Jerusalem said the year 2021 saw a significant spike in the number of so-called ‘self-demolitions’ in East Jerusalem carried out by the owners themselves to avoid financial penalties or imprisonment in light of increasing pressure by the West Jerusalem Israeli municipality.

It said the demolitions carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2021 reached a 5-year high and that a total of 904 structures were demolished and 1,205 people were displaced, including 650 children.

This represented a 6% increase in the number of structures demolished and a 20% increase in the people displaced respectively, compared with 2020, said the EU report.

M.K.