I had no choice, said Hamzah, sitting on the couch at his home in East Jerusalem next to his eldest daughter. It was either my hands or their bulldozers. I could not fight it anymore. I had to destroy it myself, Hamzah told Al Jazeera. The kids cant understand this: Their father destroyed their room. They were angry, sad… confused. This pattern of illegal construction and demolition is common throughout East Jerusalem. According to the United Nations, a set of discriminatory laws, polices and practices applied to Palestinian residents makes building legally next to impossible. Impossible choice Israel maintains an official policy to ensure a Jewish majority in Jerusalem, which took on a large Palestinian population when East Jerusalem was occupied and illegally annexed by Israel in 1967. Today, a number of laws, policies and practices promote the expansion of East Jerusalems Jewish population and the reduction of its Palestinian residents. To many observers, self-demolitions are one part of a larger process of Judaisation that has been underway for decades in the occupied territories It eats my heart In the Shufat neighborhood of East Jerusalem, the exterior of a modest concrete structure remains intact, the walls shielding the gutted interior. Mounds of concrete rubble are framed eerily by newly painted walls. Standing amid the debris of the recently destroyed house, Iyad Shaer points to the room he built for his brother and fiance. You can see the soft colors and the hearts on the walls. He prepared the inside for his wife. Days after building was complete, the municipality issued a demolition order for the illegally constructed home. Unable to afford a protracted legal battle, the family had no other option but to destroy the house. These self-demolitions - I think there is nothing like this anywhere in the world, Shaer said. A few kilometres north, the nine-member Rabaya family mills around the cement slab where their living room used to be, the outlines of the destroyed rooms evident by the marks in the foundation. I did this with my own hands last Saturday, said Naem Rabaya. Supporting his wife and seven children on a taxi drivers salary, Naem built the extra three rooms on his property in 2000 to accommodate his growing family. A year later the family received a demolition order from the municipality. He fought it for over a decade, paying 80,000 shekels ($23,000) in fines to the Jerusalem municipality, and tens of thousands more for engineers and lawyers. His son dropped out of school to help his father with money. In the end it was too much, and Naem was compelled to destroy the building himself on March 9. Now the family of nine lives in one and a half rooms. Meanwhile, a Jewish settlement is under construction just behind what remains of the family home. Everything is allowed for them, said Naems wife, speaking over the sounds of hammers and power tools coming from the rising apartment complex. We have to [construct illegal buildings] just to feed our kids. But they can steal and build anywhere they want here. aljazeera/indepth/features/2014/03/palestinians-forced-demolish-own-homes-israel-201432094848315964.html
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 13:50:18 +0000
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