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Photo:
Demolition, Silwan, 2019. Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News
Aug 30, 2020

On Sunday, a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem was forced by Israeli authorities to demolish his home — despite the fact that the demolition will render the man, his wife and their disabled son homeless.

Israeli authorities claimed that the 50-meter square house ‘lacked a permit’, despite the fact that Israeli authorities have not issued permits for Palestinian landowners to build on their own land since 1967.

The Israeli policy is part of a larger plan articulated in the early 2000s by Israeli Authorities in Jerusalem to depopulate the Palestinian population of Jerusalem in order to replace them with Jewish residents.

Despite the fact that the policy is in direct violation of international law, Israeli authorities have been allowed to carry out thousands of home demolitions, razing whole neighborhoods of Palestinian homes in order to expand their colonization onto what had been Palestinian land.

According to local sources, Khaled Basheer was told he needed to raze his 50-square-meter house, which accommodated his son Ahmed who has Down syndrome, or pay thousands of shekels in fines to the Israeli authorities.

Basheer had received a demolition notice from the Israeli authorities about four months ago and another one about two weeks ago.

Since he could not afford the fine, he had to go ahead and demolish his own home.