In a widely-condemned act, four Palestinians’ homes in the town of occupied Jerusalem’s south, Jabal Al-Mukaber, were flattened on Tuesday. The demolitions, on the pretext of their homes being unlicensed, were conducted, the Palestinian Information Centre said. There were eyewitness accounts of heavy forces of soldiers, police, and bulldozers, when four Halaseh siblings, Muhammad, Amin, Hamed, and Ali, had their homes flattened.
The demolition process began very early in the morning, with soldiers from Israel rushing into town with municipal squads. The homes were rapidly flattened with bulldozers, and Halaseh and adjacent homes could only sit and cry. The two brothers, who had occupied the homes with their families, lost their homes, being among the burgeoning numbers of Palestinians in Jerusalem who, in the past two years, had also been served similar destitution.
Under Israeli occupation laws, Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem need to apply for permission for their homes in order to construct them or extend them. The problem, though, is that such permission is notoriously difficult to achieve, with the Jerusalem municipality systematically declining such requests from Palestinians. Local human rights defenders maintain this systematic denial forces Palestinians into unlicensed housing, with their homes under imminent demolitions. Residents are even made, in some cases, to demolish their homes independently, or threatened with massive fees and levies imposed on them by the Israeli regime.
This is not the only situation that happens to those families; in fact, statistics from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority prove that Israeli forces demolished, last month alone, 76 houses from different areas in Jerusalem, affecting 126 structures overall the targeted households included 74 occupied homes, four uninhabited houses, and dwellings built for agricultural and commercial purposes. Dozens of these families have already suffered dislocation, with hundreds more facing interrupted livelihood activities.
Violation Of International Laws
These demolitions have been criticized as a violation of international laws against the demolition of houses, tending to infringe on a basic right-the right to have a proper house. International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights also defines housing as a fundamental human right in Article 11. This is unfortunately a battle that oppressed Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are fighting; their right to housing eludes them as living pressures increase and unbearable demands to vacate lands towards the illegal occupation houses created.
According to Palestinian officials and activists, demolitions in Jabal Al-Mukaber are an even more subtle form of the comprehensive strategy to change the demographic profile of Jerusalem. The restrictions on Palestinian construction, along with the widening of illegal settlements, will only help the Israeli authorities tighten their grip on the city while marginalizing its Palestinian population. It has thus been defined as a form of forced displacement with the ultimate goal of eroding the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.
The destruction of homes which occurred to the Halaseh family together with their neighbors constitutes a destructive tragedy. The wreckage search reveals items to the people who try to recover their belongings while their future outcome remains unknown. The small rebuilding options combined with ongoing demolition threats clarify the severe humanitarian crisis that Palestinians suffer in their occupied East Jerusalem territory.
Israeli officials continue to support their actions through justification of essential public order maintenance while they execute building regulations. These official reasons fail to provide any comfort to families burdened by demolition orders. The affected families view demolitions as a matter of life survival alongside their identity and the right to dwell where they belong.
