JERUSALEM, November 12, 2017 (WAFA) – A Palestinian citizen Saturday proceeded to demolish parts of his own house in the town of Silwan, in occupied Jerusalem, after the Israeli municipality threatened to demolish the house and ask him to pay unreasonable costs for a demolition by the municipality. 

Abd el-Ghani al-Dweik was forced to demolish his house after the municipality informed him that it was going to demolish it under the pretext that it was built without a permit, and that he will have to pay for the demolition costs unless he demolishes it himself.

According to international and Israeli civil organizations, Palestinians are forced to build on their property in East Jerusalem without permits because the Israeli municipality rarely issues construction permits to them.  

Testimonies collected by the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ) also found that the procedures to apply for Israeli-issued building permits were lengthy, sometimes lasting for several years, while the application costs could reach up to 300,000 shekels ($79,180). As four out of five of Palestinians in East Jerusalem live under the poverty line, applying for costly building permits is nearly impossible, leading to only seven percent of Jerusalem building permits go to Palestinian neighborhoods.

K.T/M.N