Occupied East Jerusalem – Fakhri Abu Diab had no time to pack his bags when Israeli authorities arrived at his door in occupied East Jerusalem on February 14. The police first evicted his family, then ordered the bulldozer to demolish his house.
“All my memories were in this house,” said Abu Diab, 62, who was born and raised in this house. “I even had a photo of my mother holding me when I was a child. It used to hang on our wall, but now it’s gone. »
Following Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, the Jerusalem municipality has stepped up demolitions of homes in the eastern part of the city, which Israel annexed to the occupied West Bank in 1967 and where most of the 362,000 people live Palestinians in Jerusalem.
In the first nine months of 2023, Israel demolished a total of 97 Palestinian homes. But 87 homes have been bulldozed in East Jerusalem since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israeli communities and military outposts in southern Israel on October 7, according to Ir Amim, a local nonprofit organization. lucrative that monitors house demolitions and defends Palestinian rights.
The sharp increase in demolitions suggests that the Jerusalem municipality is exploiting the global attention on Gaza, where nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, to try to uproot more Palestinians from East Jerusalem, activists and experts say.
“These (demolitions) are being carried out under the guise of law enforcement – as if it were a bureaucratic measure – but in reality it is a form of state violence and serves as mechanism for moving Palestinians out of the city,” Amy said. Cohen, director of international relations and advocacy at Ir Amim.
Systemic violence
Israel justifies the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem by claiming they were built without permits. The municipality generally allows only predominantly Jewish neighborhoods to build new homes.
Legal discrimination has forced Palestinians to build without permits, making 28% of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem “illegal.”
Israeli authorities gave orders to demolish most of them, according to Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer specializing in legal and public issues in East Jerusalem.
“Before the war, there were around 20,000 demolition orders outstanding and these orders never expire,” Seidemann told Tel Aviv Tribune.
House demolitions are prohibited under international law unless necessary for military operations. But Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch director for Israel and Palestine, said Israel had created a legal structure allowing it to demolish Palestinian homes.
“There are different mechanisms (for imposing demolitions), each of which ultimately pursues the same goal: to force Palestinians off their land and maximize land for Israeli Jews,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Since October 7, Seidemann said Palestinians in East Jerusalem have become significantly more afraid of losing their homes. He cited the perceived increase in racist rhetoric and violent harassment that Israeli politicians and security officials have shown toward Palestinians.
“The tense atmosphere of the moment leads (Palestinians to think that) if they have a demolition order, then their house could be (destroyed) next,” he said.
Sending a message
The demolition of Abu Diab’s house has compounded that fear, experts and activists say.
Abu Diab is himself a human rights activist and the elected spokesperson for Silwan, a district that represents around 60,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Residents trust him to speak out against home demolitions and other forms of systemic discrimination that Palestinians face at the hands of Israeli occupation authorities.
“This is not the first time the Israelis have targeted him,” said Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, Israeli co-director with Abu Diab of Jahalin Solidarity, a local organization that tries to prevent the forced displacement of Palestinians. “Once he was put in prison and another time his son was arrested. The message read: “Tell your father to shut up.”
“I asked Abu Diab, after Israel demolished his house, if he would stop speaking out. He said, ‘I’m going to talk some more now,'” Godfrey-Goldstein told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Palestinian and Israeli activists say advocacy for the protection of Palestinian homes is needed more than ever. As municipal elections on February 27 approach, Abou Diab believes that candidates could deliberately call for demolishing more houses to please their voters.
He expressed concern that far-right candidate Arieh King, currently deputy mayor of Jerusalem, could become the next mayor. King has previously said he wants to limit the construction of Palestinian homes in order to protect Israel’s character as a Jewish state. In December, he posted on X, calling Palestinians “subhuman.”
“If King becomes the next mayor in the next election, the situation will become quite difficult. He openly threatened to demolish Palestinian homes and kill Palestinians,” Abou Diab said.
“There will be a reaction”
Abu Diab said he owes his life to Godfrey-Goldstein and other activists for quickly alerting journalists and human rights organizations when police burst into his home. He believes the police could have seriously injured or killed him if those who arrived had not filmed the demolition.
“My wife was sleeping when about 20 or 30 police officers rushed in. We are traumatized by what we experienced,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
But even though Abou Diab survived, he and his family – children and grandchildren – are now homeless. He told Tel Aviv Tribune that he slept with friends and relatives in his community, often moving from one residence to another.
Abu Diab also fears he won’t be able to afford the demolition. Israeli authorities generally demand that Palestinian residents pay for the bulldozing of their homes as well as the salaries of police deployed to evict residents and secure the premises.
Abu Diab expects the total bill to be $20,000 or $30,000. However, her immediate priority is trying to find a new home for her grandchildren, who are too young to understand why they are homeless.
His two-year-old granddaughter recently asked him why the police destroyed their house. He said he didn’t know how to answer.
Although he tries to stay strong for his family, Abu Diab worries about the future and warned that Palestinians in East Jerusalem will eventually erupt in anger if Israeli authorities continue to step up house demolitions.
“There will be a reaction,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “People can’t stand this for long. »