Palestinian forced to demolish his house in Jerusalem

A Palestinian Jerusalemite, Abdul-Naset Qara’een, demolished part of his house located in Wadi al-Hilaw area in East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood, Felessteen newspaper reported on Monday.

Qara’een demolished a 22-metre-square room he built for his son because his house is very small and he has daughters living in the only bedroom in the house.

“I demolished the room after an order had been issued to me by the Israeli occupation court stipulating that it must be demolished before the start of the next month,” he said.

He added: “I demolished it with my hands to avoid paying over NIS 65,000 ($17,000) if the Israeli bulldozers demolished it.”

Qara’een explained his feelings after demolishing his house: “It is the most difficult situation when someone demolishes his own house which he built it with his own hands.”

Palestinian citizens in Jerusalem, he said, live in appalling “misery” due to Israel’s restrictions on building and expansion of existing buildings, which are surrounded by Jewish settlers.

Qara’een said that this is part of the Israeli scheme to force the Palestinians to leave their homes and make room for Jewish settlers to expand their illegal settlements.