Israeli occupation authorities on Monday forced Palestinian family to demolish its own house in occupied East Jerusalem, family members said.
Israel had issued an order to demolish the two-apartment house in Silwan Neighborhood, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Israeli occupation authorities gave us until December 10 to demolish our house,” Murad Hashmyeh, family member, said.
He said 14 people live in the house — half of them children — which was built 20 years ago.
According to Hashmyeh, the Israeli occupation threatened to charge the family for the demolition.
Israel uses the pretext of building without a permit to carry out demolitions of Palestinian-owned homes on a regular basis.
At the same time, it is rarely that Israeli authorities grant Palestinians permits to build in occupied territories, including Jerusalem.
Daniel Seidemann of the NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem said: “Since 1967, the Government of Israel has directly engaged in the construction of 55,000 units for Israelis in East Jerusalem; in contrast, fewer than 600 units have been licensed for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the last of which were built 40 years ago.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. It later annexed the city in 1980, claiming Jerusalem as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognised by the international community.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Israeli settlement building on the land to be illegal.
Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to “Judaize” Jerusalem with the aim of wiping away its Arab and Islamic identity and driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.
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