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Scenes. Published by Maan News
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem tore down the roof of his own house on Saturday, in compliance with an order from Israel's Jerusalem municipality that said the roof was constructed without the required building license.

Yousif Bukhtan told Ma'an that the walls of his 60-square-meter house had been built several years ago, and the roof was added three years ago.

He said that the Jerusalem municipality had warned that if he didn't demolish the roof by the end of March, he would be forced to pay the exorbitant fine typically imposed by Israeli authorities when municipality crews carry out demolitions.

In Bukhtan's case, if he had refused to carry out the demolition himself, the municipality's crews would have likely razed the entire house to the ground, he said.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem municipality had previously told Ma’an that “self demolitions occur when house owners heed legal notices and court rulings and remove building code violations independently. Specific instances of residents heeding these notices are not verified in real time, therefore we cannot comment on them."