Palestinians protest Israel’s home demolitions in East Jerusalem

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Scores of Palestinians and Israeli peace activists staged a rally in East Jerusalem on Tuesday to protest Israel’s policy of home demolitions in the occupied city.

The protest comes as Israeli municipal authorities plan to demolish a Palestinian residential building in the Wadi Qadum neighborhood in the town of Silwan in East Jerusalem on the pretext that it lacks a construction permit.

"If this building was owned by a Jew, they (Israeli authorities) would have allowed him to stay in his apartment and grant him a building license,” Fathi al-Rajbi, a resident of the building, told Anadolu Agency.

“But since the building is owned by an Arab, they will demolish it,” he lamented.

Palestinian and Israeli rights groups accuse Israeli authorities of imposing building restrictions on Palestinians while at the same time allowing for Jewish settlements to expand.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the West Bank and Gaza, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping East Jerusalem might eventually serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Writing by Ahmed Asmar