The Israeli occupation threatens to demolish 800 Palestinian homes in Jabal Mukaber, Jerusalem

Occupied Jerusalem (ST): Hardly a day passes without the Israeli occupation demolishing a house or declaring a settlement plan on the lands of the occupied city of Jerusalem, in addition to assaulting and arresting Palestinians in it with the aim of restricting them to forcibly displace them and changing the geographical and demographic reality of the city for the benefit of the settlers.

Recently, the occupation intensified its attacks on the Palestinians in the town of Jabal Mukaber, southeast of occupied Jerusalem, especially the demolition of homes. Last February, it forced eight families to demolish their homes with their own hands and handed notices to demolish 800 homes to establish 500 settlement units in a clear violation of the relevant international legitimacy resolutions, especially the UN resolution 2334 of 2016, which confirms the illegality of settlements in the Palestinian territories and calls for its cessation.

Member of the follow-up committee in the town of Jabal Mukaber Tariq Owaisat warned of the danger of this scheme because it not only deprives the residents of Jabal Mukaber of urban expansion but will force them to migrate forcibly from the town in order to obtain housing, stressing that Jerusalemites will not abandon their homes and lands and will continue to defend them and will not allow for the occupation to repeat the tragedy of the Nakba.

For his part, the head of the People’s Committee in the town of Jabal al-Mukaber Suleiman Shayrat warned against the racist practices of the occupation towards the people of the town who face daily the most horrific operations of repression and abuse, pointing out that hardly a week passes without the occupation forcing a family to demolish their house to make them homeless in the sight and hearing of the international community, which is satisfied with statements condemning the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing that Jerusalemites are subjected to at the hands of the occupation.

Rasem Obeidat, a member of the National and Civil Action Committee in Jerusalem, confirmed that the occupation follows a systematic colonial policy to seize the homes of Jerusalemites, especially in the town of Jabal Mukaber, by seizing hundreds of dunams, warning at the same time of the danger of the occupation’s settlement plans that began to be implemented in the Old City to falsify its history and obliterate its features. 

K.Q.