Israel bulldozers demolish Palestinian coffee firm in Jerusalem

Israeli occupation bulldozers yesterday demolished the headquarters of a Palestinian coffee firm in Jabal Al-Mukabber in occupied Jerusalem, the Safa news agency reported.

Owner of Nakhlat Al-Quds, Hussein Abu-Sukar said that he was surprised when the bulldozers came to demolish the building as he had received no prior warning.

Municipality employees gave him no more than 15 minutes to evacuate the building, which meant he was unable to remove most of the machinery, materials and produce from the site.

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The Israeli aggression cost him 500,000 shekels ($135,844) Abu-Sukar said.

Abu Sukar said that he had applied for licences to build a roof on his property six years ago however occupation authorities did not issue them.

He was subsequently fined 8,000 shekels ($2,174).

The demolition of the factory has left ten Palestinians unemployed and 50 without a source of income, Au-Sukar said.

Israeli occupation forces also forced a Palestinian to demolish him home in occupied Jerusalem or risk paying Israel tens of thousands of shekels to raze it.

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Obeidat built his 90-metre-square house of metal plates and applied to the Israeli municipality to get a licence, but they did not issue one, he was however fined.

Reports revealed that, in 2017, the Israeli municipality distributed demolition orders to all the residents of Obeidat’s neighbourhood in Jabal Al-Mukabir, which is close to Nof Zion settlement under the pretext that the land is owned by an Israeli company.