JERUSALEM, November 2, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem demolished on Wednesday a two-storey residential building in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood of Jerusalem, according to local sources.
Mahmoud Thalji, owner of an apartment in one of the building, said staff from the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem accompanied by Israeli police arrived at the area and cordoned the building off before they proceeded to demolish it under the pretext of construction without a permit.
Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in East Jerusalem forcing people to build without a permit.
Only 14 percent of East Jerusalem land is zoned for Palestinian residential construction, while one-third of Palestinian land has been confiscated since 1967 to build illegal Jewish-only settlements, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) says.
M.N./M.A.
