JERUSALEM, Tuesday, January 28, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli police today morning demolished a Palestinian store in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, reported WAFA correspondent.

He said that heavily-armed Israeli police and staff of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem stormed Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, where they cordoned off a sanitary ware store.

Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a Silwan-based watchdog, posted a video showing police allowing the store owners to remove some of the sanitary fittings, before the heavy machinery tore down the store, built of tin sheets.

Using the pretext of illegal building, Israel demolishes structures on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem and driven them out of the city.

At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in Jerusalem for Jews with a goal to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.

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 by Israel for a variety of reasons, including insufficient loyalty to the State of Israel.

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.