Israel demolishes East Jerusalem building that was home to 50 Palestinians

Jerusalem, May 17 (EFE).- Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished a residential building in East Jerusalem where 50 Palestinians lived, claiming that the property did not have the proper construction permits, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.

“The building that was demolished by the occupation forces, under the pretext that it was built without a permit, housed 50 people from the Al Huseini family,” Wafa said, specifying that the building is located in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, in East Jerusalem, on the outskirts of the Old City.

One of the people who lived in the building told the agency that it was built 40 years ago and that the family had bought it 17 years ago.

However, in 2018, Israeli authorities served the Al Husseini family with an eviction order for the demolition of their home, which had been repeatedly postponed on appeal.

Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, and since then has maintained an occupation over these territories, which is considered among the longest in recent history.

In 1980 it annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem, which is considered illegal under international law.

Israel promotes Jewish settlements in these occupied territories by disregarding the legitimacy of Palestinian constructions and refusing to grant building permits to Palestinian families, before ordering the homes to be demolished.

Since 2009, some 9,472 Palestinian structures have been demolished by Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, generating a total of 13,643 displaced people, according to the UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Last month, a group of UN experts called on the international community to take “immediate” action to halt the occupation of East Jerusalem and other areas near the city by Israeli settlers.

For the UN, this constitutes a “flagrant violation of international law” by Israel, which puts at risk 150 Palestinian families in the neighborhoods of the Old City, Silwan and Shaykh Yarrah, all in the eastern part of Jerusalem. EFE

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