Tel Aviv Tribune Net correspondents
Occupied Jerusalem- The Israeli demolition policy is stalking the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, and recently it has escalated its campaign by demolishing homes built decades ago and threatening their owners.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net witnessed two self-demolition operations carried out by two Jerusalemite citizens, as the owners of the two houses were forced to demolish them in order to avoid paying large sums of money if the Israeli occupation municipality carried out the demolition operation.
The young man Sami Al-Halawani, from the Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood in Jerusalem, sought to build a simple, small house that would enable him to get married and build a new family, but the occupation municipality departments pursued him until he had made great progress in building it, then they came to him with a demolition order.
Al-Halwani says to Al-Jazeera Net: I built my house about 5 months ago and it is still under construction, and today I demolish it with my own hands by decision of the occupation municipality.
The Jerusalemite citizen adds that the occupation does not give the Palestinians building permits and demolishes what is built “in a clear policy of displacement of the Jerusalemite population.”
Al-Halwani continued: I was planning to get married. The housing rent is high, between 3,500 shekels (about 930 dollars) and 6,000 shekels (about 1,600 dollars), and at least a shekel, and this is very expensive, so I had to build, which cost me about 120,000 shekels (about 32,000 dollars), but I Today I demolish it.
For his part, Al-Maqdisi Thaer Muhammad Jaabis, a resident of Jabal Mukaber in Jerusalem, says that he built his house 18 years ago, and recently the occupation municipality began pursuing him.
Jaabis told Tel Aviv Tribune Net: The occupation municipality gave me until Tuesday to demolish the house without paying attention to the legal procedures I was taking and the expensive fines I paid, and gave me the choice between demolishing it myself or demolishing it with the force of the army and paying the costs, so I chose self-demolition.
After the demolition of his house, Jaabis did not find a house to shelter him, so he decided to build a tent in the place of the house and reside in it, pledging nevertheless to stay and not leave the city, saying: “I will not come back from here.”
According to official Palestinian data, 292 demolition operations were carried out in the Jerusalem Governorate during 2023, including 73 facilities whose owners were forced to demolish them with their own hands.
