JERUSALEM, April 4, 2017 (WAFA) – A Palestinian Tuesday was forced to demolish his own home in Beit Hanina, a northern Jerusalem neighborhood, for lacking a building permit, local sources said.

They said Hafez Rajabi opted to demolish his home by himself after the Israeli West Jerusalem municipality informed him that he either tears down his home with his own hands or bear heavy costs if municipality crews demolish it.

Palestinians in the Israeli occupied parts of East Jerusalem are rarely granted construction permits, which force many to build without authorization.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers demolished 14 Palestinian apartments and razed lands and walls in an East Jerusalem neighborhood.

Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, who number over 300,000, face serious shortage in housing because Israeli planning policies discriminate against them, “making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits,” as reported by the United Nations group, Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In contrast, Israel has built dozens of settlements with thousands of housing unit for Jews on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.

T.R./M.K.