The Israeli occupation authorities forced Friday two Palestinian families in Jabel Mukaber, East Jerusalem, to demolish their houses and stay in tents that were donated by the neighbors amid a stormy weather.
The families of the two brothers Maher and Mohammed Nassar comprises15 individuals including 11 children.
According to Maher, they built the houses eight years ago. The area of one of the houses is up to 90 square meters and shelters 11 individuals while the second extends to 50 square meters and shelters four.
The two families requested a license from the municipality, however, their request was turned down.
After years of talks, the municipality granted them a 10-day duration to demolish their houses and warned it would fine them with 80,000 shekels (USD23,000). Friday was the deadline so the two families rushed to destroy their houses to avoid further tragedy.
Mohammed Nassar said that a year and a half ago, some employees from the occupation's municipality raided their houses and gave them a notice. The municipality completed the legal procedures with the assistance of an attorney, he added.
The families were fined with 35,000 shekels for committing a violation in the construction. The fine was being paid in installments of 635 shekels every month.
Fatah movement’s secretary-general in Jabal al-Mukabbir Iyad Bashir said that the occupation is targeting the village in order to push the residents of Jerusalem to migrate. Approximately, every week it is conducting demolition operations whether via trucks or through making citizens destroy their houses.
Earlier, France denounced the new decision to give a green-light to the construction of 1,936 housing units in the West Bank settlements.
The French consulate in Jerusalem said in a statement that the decision “comes at a troubling time of accelerated settlement on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.”
“Settlements in all forms are illegal under international law, and specifically UN Security Council Resolution 2334. They heighten tensions on the ground and undermine the conditions for a just and lasting settlement between Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two-state solution,” the statement said.
France called on the Israeli authorities to “renounce these projects and all those that undermine the two-state solution.”
