Israeli municipality crew at work demolishing a Palestinian-owned building in Issawiya neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. 

JERUSALEM, March 1, 2017 (WAFA) – A crew from the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem demolished on Wednesday a Palestinian-owned home in occupied East Jerusalem under the pretext of construction without a permit, according to witnesses.

They told WAFA that staff from the Israeli municipality demolished the the two-floor, four-apartment building owned by Khaled Nimr Mahmoud in Issawiya neighbrohood of East Jerusalem displacing as a result 30 people, including women and children.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel‘s discriminatory policies on planning and construction that allocate enormous budgets for Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem have come at the expense of development for Palestinian communities since Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem after its occupation in 1967.

The situation has forced many Palestinians to build homes without obtaining permits, while the Jerusalem municipality enforces building laws on Palestinians much more stringently than on the Jewish population -- even though the number of violations is much higher in the Jewish neighborhoods according to B’Tselem.

M.N,/M.K.