Claiming lack of building permits, Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes
While refusing to grant Palestinians building permits, the Israeli authorities have recently intensified their demolition operations targeting Palestinian homes, justifying their actions by claiming that these homes were built without permits.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Layla al-Isawi is concerned and fears the Israeli authorities might demolish her family’s house in the Issawiya neighborhood of Jerusalem, allegedly because the family did not have a building permit from the municipality. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Isawi, 69, said she was surprised when she found a demolition notice on her door on May 9 after she returned from a visit to Hasharon prison in Israel, where her daughter Shirine is kept.
Shirine was arrested on March 6, 2014, and sentenced to four years in prison on charges of providing assistance to prisoners and acting as a facilitator between prisoners and leaders, along with her brother, who was sentenced to eight years in prison. The demolition notice stated that Isawi had 30 days to contact the Israeli authorities about the issue.
Isawi has been living in her family home for more than 40 years with her husband and eight children; the ground floor was built in 1969 and the second floor in 1996. She now worries that it will be destroyed, just like the house of her son Raafat, which was demolished on Jan. 1, 2013, under the same pretext of lack of a building permit.
Speaking to Al-Monitor, the head of the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center, Issam al-Arouri, said the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli Interior Ministry have been issuing orders to destroy houses and facilities that belong to Palestinians and were built without a permit. The Israeli authorities often refuse to grant building permits to Palestinians. The civil administration in Area C in the West Bank executes these orders. In the rare cases where building is approved by the Israeli authorities, Palestinians are burdened by issuance fees, which may amount to 120,000 Israeli shekels ($32,000).
