Israel forces Jerusalemite woman to demolish her home

The Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem forced a Palestinian woman from the village of Silwan to demolish her house over claims that it lacked building licenses

December 23, 2020 




The Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem yesterday forced a Palestinian woman from the village of Silwan to demolish her house over claims that it lacked building licenses, Safa news agency reported.

Shahira Gheith said that she had been able to put off the demolition order but she was surprised when Israeli occupation police surrounded her house and told her that the court rejected the postponement.

She said that the Israeli police told her she must demolish her house by herself; otherwise, she would have to pay high for the municipality's bulldozers to carry out the demolition at a cost of 70,000 ($21,704).

Shahira and her children have now become homeless.

"I will set up a tent and live in it with my children," she said. "I had worked hard to build my house and I lost it just three months after living in it," she continued.

Israel settlers launch systematic attacks on Palestinian properties


Israeli flags can be seen around a Palestinian house which was illegally occupied by settlers under the protection of occupation forces in the West bank city of Hebron on 26 July 2017. [Mamoun Wazwaz /Anadolu Agency]

December 23, 2020 

Ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are part of a large campaign aimed at seizing more Palestinian lands and imposing new realities on the ground, B'Tselem warned yesterday.

"These attacks are being carried out with full support from the Israeli army and government," Kareem Jubran, director of the field research department at B'Tselem, said, stressing that the Israeli army and government support the extremist stances of the Israeli Jewish settlers.

Speaking to Palestine Voice Radio, Jubran said that the Israeli settlers have recently increased their attacks in many Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank. The settlers' attacks, he said, are protected by the occupation army and police.

Meanwhile, Director of Anti-Wall and Settlements Committee, Murad Ishtiwi, said: "There is another campaign carried out by the Israeli occupation army and police targeting Palestinian shops, homes and vehicles."

He said that this campaign is being carried out in parallel with the one carried out by the extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinian properties.