Troops level two Palestinian homes in Jerusalem

Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies - Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 01:00

Palestinian sources in Jerusalem reported on Tuesday that Israeli policemen and border-guard units leveled two Palestinian homes in Al Tour and Ras Al Amoud, in East Jerusalem. Israel claims that the houses were constructed without obtaining construction permits from the Jerusalem municipality. In Al Tour area, soldiers leveled the house of Ghadeer Abu Ghalia, and rendered him, his wife and four children homeless. Abu Ghalia said that soldiers and policemen attacked their house on Tuesday morning, forces them out within 15 minutes and leveled it. “My children were sleeping, soldiers said they will demolish the house over our heads if we don't leave immediately”, Abu Ghalia said, “I called my lawyer and informed him on what was going on”. The lawyer, Hasan Ghanyim, headed to the municipality to void the demolishing order, but the army did not want to wait until legal documents are presented, and started demolishing the house. Ghanyim manged to obtain an order from Jerusalem Municipality to spare the house, but it had already been leveled by the soldiers who refused to wait for any legal procedures. The family received a bill to pay from the municipality requiring them to pay “the expenses of leveling their home”. The house was a 150 square-meter, it included three bedrooms, and one living room; the Ghalia family moved to their house three months ago. In a separate attack, soldiers leveled another house, which is still under construction, in Ras Al Amoud area in East Jerusalem. The 180 square-meter building was officially licensed by the Jerusalem municipality, but again soldiers did not wait to see the licence and legal documents. The demolished house costed the family 180.000 NIS in construction expenses. The Al Quds Center in Jerusalem said that 42 Palestinian houses were leveled in Jerusalem since the beginning of 2006. Palestinian living in Jerusalem are facing what became known as silent deportation from the city since the municipality is not allowing them to construct new houses or modify the houses they are living in, while settlements, constructed on Palestinian annexed properties, are expanding and wrapping the city from all sides.

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