OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), A Palestinian family was left homeless on Sunday after the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) forced it to demolish its own home in the east Jerusalem district of Silwan, south of the Aqsa Mosque, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
To avoid hefty fines and steep costs levied by the Israeli municipality and its demolition crews, the family was forced to destroy the home at its own expense.
According to media sources, Murad Ghaith started to demolish the upper floor of his family’s two-story building in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of Silwan after receiving an ultimatum from the Israeli municipality.
The Israeli municipality also banned Ghaith and his family from living in the building’s ground-floor apartment.
The Israeli municipality continues to coerce Jerusalem residents into demolishing their own homes, while at the same time refusing to grant them building permits.
The rate at which Palestinian homes and structures are demolished in east Jerusalem has almost doubled since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, human rights groups and monitoring organizations say.
The demolitions are ordered by the Israeli municipality, which claims that many Palestinian homes and structures are illegally built without permission.
All attempts by Palestinian families in east Jerusalem to apply for planning permission are rejected by the municipality. That means growing families say they have no choice but to build without permits and face the consequences, huge fines and demolition orders.
