LONDON: Two Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem were forced to demolish their homes on Sunday to avoid steep financial penalties, and possibly imprisonment, that the Israeli regime had threatened for allegedly building without permits.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governorate said the Quraan family was forced to demolish their home in the Jabal Al-Mukabbir neighborhood on Sunday.
The Halawani family also demolished their residential building, comprising six housing units, in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem. As a result, 30 individuals, including children, have been left homeless.
The families were forced to demolish their homes because they would have had to pay thousands of dollars for the Israeli regime to do so.
Israel regularly denies Palestinians building permits, while illegally expanding Jewish settlements in the city and the occupied West Bank.
From 1991 to 2018, Israeli authorities approved only 16.5 percent of building permits in Palestinian neighborhoods. The others were issued for Israeli neighborhoods in West Jerusalem and settlements, according to the organization Peace Now.
The Jerusalem governorate said Israel has a “systematic policy of displacing” Palestinians from the city.
“Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem are frequently denied building permits by Israeli authorities, leaving many with no legal option but to build without authorization,” it added.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have criticized Israel’s home demolition policy in Jerusalem as “discriminatory.”
Since Israel attacked Gaza in October 2023, authorities in Jerusalem have demolished 623 houses and other commercial facilities belonging to dozens of Palestinian families.
The Israeli regime faces charges of war crimes and genocide in the Occupied Territories.
