Dozens of Palestinian homes have become threatened with demolition as the Israeli municipal authority in Occupied Jerusalem is still embarking on building a link road passing through the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber.
Lawyer Ra’ed Bashir a member of the Jabal Mukaber land defense committee told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the road to be named the American Street would be 32 meters wide thus leading to the demolition of 57 Palestinian homes.
Bashir added that the Israeli municipality would not build new homes for the Palestinians whose current ones are slated for demolition to make space for the new road and would only allow commercial structures and projects to be built around it.
He noted that Jabal Mukaber land defense committee managed to extract a court order delaying the demolition of 35 homes for five years but the Israeli occupation authority did not comply and decided to go ahead with the road project.
He also said that the residents of the neighborhood only want the IOA to make the road 12 meters wide instead of 32 meters to provide their area with infrastructure and to allow residential construction around it.
Although the Israeli municipality claims that the road project is intended to serve the Palestinian residents specialists in Jerusalem affairs confirm that the facts on the ground reflect that it will be built to connect the settlement of Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim) south of Jerusalem with the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim east of the city.
