The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) in east Jerusalem on Tuesday morning demolished a Palestinian house and the foundations of another one whose owners were forced to raze last month.
According to local sources a demolition crew escorted by police forces stormed ash-Shayyah area in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of at-Tur and embarked on knocking down the foundations of a house belonging to the family of Burqan.
The family of Burqan had to raze their house about one month ago to avoid paying exorbitant money to the Israeli municipality if they had not complied with its demolition order.
“This morning we were surprised to see Israeli machinery demolishing the foundations of our two-story house which we had demolished in last November to avoid paying 400000 shekels in fines and demolition expenses” Umm Eyyad Burqan said in press remarks.
“They came today to demolish its foundations to force us to pay the costs” she added.
“It was not enough for the occupation authorities to demolish our home and displace 20 of us who are my four sons and their kids they also want to fine us and make us pay the demolition expenses under flimsy pretexts” she said.
The IOA also demolished in the morning another house belonging to the family of Halis near the Maghariba Gate in east Jerusalem at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
The Jerusalemites have no choice but to build without licenses because there are no structural maps that respond to the natural increase in their numbers and for that reason they are denied house permits.
The IOA also imposes building restrictions on the Palestinian natives in Jerusalem and makes it hard for them to obtain construction licenses.
Israel’s systematic demolition of Palestinian homes in Occupied Jerusalem is believed to be aimed at psychologically destroying the Jerusalemite families in an attempt to force them to move from the holy city.
