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Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned home in Beit Hanina

April 18, 2019 at 11:15 pm

Israeli bulldozers demolish buildings belonging to Palestinians in Jerusalem [Ma’an News Agency]

Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian home in the Beit Hanina town of occupied East Jerusalem, on Wednesday, Ma’an News reported.

Sources told Ma’an that Israeli police forces escorted bulldozers into the al-Ashqariya neighbourhood of the town, surrounded and demolished a house belonging to a local identified as Imran al-Masri.

Al-Masri said that Israeli police forces had raided his home last Sunday and informed him of the demolition order.

Al-Masri’s lawyer was reportedly able to postpone the order for one month, but was surprised this morning by the raid and demolition.

The house was built 11 years ago, al-Masri has attempted to issue the necessary licenses for the house; the Israeli authorities imposed a fine of 40,000 shekels on al-Masri.

‘We will rebuild’, Palestinians say as Israel demolishes village for 143rd time

Al-Masri and his 7-member family were left homeless after the demolition.

Israeli bulldozers had demolished several Palestinian-owned structures in the Silwan town, also in East Jerusalem, earlier Wednesday.

Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in East Jerusalem, though the Jerusalem municipality has claimed that compared to the Jewish population, they receive a disproportionately low number of permit applications from Palestinian communities, which also see high approval ratings.

For Jewish Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem’s illegal settlements, the planning, marketing, development, and infrastructure are funded and executed by the Israeli government. By contrast, in Palestinian neighbourhoods, all the burden falls on individual families to contend with a lengthy permit application that can last several years and cost tens of thousands of dollars.