Israeli forces demolish Palestinian home in Jerusalem, leaves family of four homeless

Israeli forces demolished on Wednesday a Palestinian house in the town of Sur Baher in Jerusalem.

The house, which belonged to the Dabash family, was home to Amir Dabash, his wife and their 4-year-old and 2-year-old children.

"We have nowhere to go now, and we are still looking for a place to spend the night," Amir Dabash told The New Arab.

"We built the house and moved into it about a year ago and since it's nearly impossible to obtain a construction permit, we filed the petition and began to build anyway," explained Dabash.

lsraeli occupation forces demolish a Palestinian-owned house in Sur Baher, occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/N0VV4U7iQE

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) November 16, 2022

"In the meantime, we had to continue court procedures, hire a lawyer and pay fees, altogether costing us over 20,000 shekels (US$ 5,882)," said Dabash.

"At 6 am on Wednesday, the Israeli police came without notice, forced my family out of the house and kept me inside for a while," recalled Dabash. "They searched the house and then took me out, and then bulldozed the house to the ground."

House demolitions in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank witnessed a spike in recent years, according to the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - OCHA, from 422 demolished Palestinian structures in 2017, to 630 in 2020, reaching 911 in 2021.

According to OCHA, Israeli authorities have demolished 697 Palestinian structures between January and October of 2022. Jerusalem alone counts for 19% of all demolitions.

Palestinian children inspect the rubble of their home which Israeli occupation demolished today in Sur Baher town in Jerusalem, leaving them homeless. pic.twitter.com/2r7FyU61hD

— V PALESTINE 🇵🇸 (@V_Palestine20) November 16, 2022

"The demolition policy is the other side of the settlement expansion policy," Khalil Tafakji, the top Palestinian expert on settlements and head of the maps unit at Jerusalem's Orient House, told TNA.

"For each Palestinian house demolished, a dozen Israeli settlers' houses are built, and it all follows a clear program of demographic engineering," pointed out Tafakji.

"Since 1972, when Israel's ministerial 'Gafni committee' set as a general policy to reduce Palestinian population in Jerusalem to no more than 25%, Israel hasn’t stopped demolishing Palestinian property while expanding settlements in Jerusalem," he added.

Last Sunday, Israeli media sources revealed new plans to build 9,000 new settlement housing units on the lands of the Palestinian town of Qalandia, north of Jerusalem.

On Monday, Israeli forces demolished two buildings composed of six apartments ready for living, in the village of Al-Menyah, near Bethlehem, for building without a permit. The apartments belonged to the same Palestinian family.

Israeli occupation bulldozers demolished a house owned by Palestinian man Amir Dabash in Sur Baher town in Jerusalem, under the pretext of building without an Israeli-issued permit. pic.twitter.com/9x0Nz0ozIq

— V PALESTINE 🇵🇸 (@V_Palestine20) November 16, 2022

In late October, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East pointed out Israel's demolitions policy while presenting his report on human rights in the Palestinian territories during October, at a UN Security Council’s special debate on Palestine.

"During the reporting period, Israeli authorities demolished, seized or forced owners to demolish 38 Palestinian-owned structures in 'Area C' and three in East Jerusalem, displacing 81Palestinians," said Wennesland.

"The demolitions are carried out due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain," he added.