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Photo:
Scene. Published by Maan News
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QALANSUWA (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian resident of the Qalansuwa City in central Israel was forced to demolish his own home upon order by the Israeli authorities, on Wednesday evening.

Locals reported that Saleh Jamal demolished his own home to avoid Israeli fines and costs of demolition.

The Israeli authorities ordered the demolition under the pretext that the building lacks the necessary licenses.

Israel had demolished another house belonging to the same family several years ago.

While Israeli law guarantees Palestinians the same equality as other citizens, in practice there are claims of discrimination in government funding and a raft of other issues, nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally.

Israeli Palestinian rights group Adalah says that only 4.6% of new homes built in Israel are in Palestinian towns and villages, even though Palestinians make up over 20% of the population.

The difficulty for Palestinians in Israel to obtain building permits forces them to expand or build homes and structures without permits, which are liable to later be torn down.

In 2015, the United Nations, as well as other members of the international community, have verbally condemned Israel's systematic destruction of Palestinian homes and declared the practice as illegal and unfair.