RAMALLAH, September 28, 2016 (WAFA) – A Palestinian Wednesday morning was forced to demolish his own house in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, reported WAFA correspondent.
Following an Israeli court issued a demolition order for the house for being built without a license, Imad Jaber was forced to demolish his 70-meter-square house.
“I demolished it with my own hands to avoid paying over NIS 70,000 ($18,000) in demolition fees if Israeli bulldozers demolished it,” he said.
This came a day after a spate of demolitions of Palestinian property by Israeli forces across the West Bank.
Israeli bulldozers demolished two apartments and a restaurant in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of al-Tur and Beit Safafa, a classroom in Abu Nuwwar community, which is a part of “E1 corridor”, three rooms in the Bethlehem town of Beit Jala, and water wells in the Hebron town of Sair.
There has been an upsurge in demolitions of Palestinian property across the West Bank as the number of structures demolished in the first half of 2016 exceeded the total number of demolitions in the entire previous year 2015.
“From January to the end of June 2016, the Civil Administration demolished 168 homes in the West Bank, leaving 740 Palestinians homeless – 384 of them minors,” said the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the occupied Territories (B’Tselem).
Despite filing applications, Palestinians in the West Bank, especially East Jerusalem and Area C, are rarely granted construction permits by Israeli authorities. As a result, they are forced to embark on construction without obtaining rarely-granted permits.
Israel frequently utilizes the lack of construction permits as a pretext for demolishing Palestinian houses.
Many humanitarian and legal bodies have maintained that Israel have been adopting planning policies discriminatory against Palestinians in West Bank Area C and East Jerusalem, , making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits.
“As a result, many Palestinians build without permits to meet their housing needs and risk having their structures demolished. Palestinians must have the opportunity to participate in a fair and equitable planning system that ensures their needs are met,” OCHA reports.
Although Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian Territory that has been subject to Israeli military occupation since 1967, they are denied their citizenship rights and are instead classified only as "residents" whose permits can be revoked if they move away from the city for more than a few years.
They are also discriminated against in all aspects of life including housing, employment and services, and are unable to access services in the West Bank due to the construction of Israel‘s separation wall.
K.F.
