In the latest of a series of demolitions, Israeli bulldozers demolished a house and a sheep farm in At-Toor neighborhood in Jerusalem, under the pretext that the buildings were built without a license.The owner of the house and the farm, Wa’el Darwesh Da’na, reported that Israeli troops arrived at his home on Wednesday and ordered him to get out immediately. They were followed by a number of Israeli military vehicles and armored Caterpillar-brand D9 bulldozers, which ripped down his house and the barn where he keeps his sheep.
Da’na,who is a father of ten children, stated that two months ago he received a warning from the army that he needed to remove the house and the farm.
He hired a lawyer, who filed an official response to the warning, but he did not receive an answer. Instead, he was surprised Wednesday morning when, without any prior warning, the Israeli troops surrounded his house and then destroyed it from top to bottom.
Israeli officials claim that the daily demolitions of Palestinian homes is legal, because these homes were ‘built without a license’. But no licenses have been granted to Palestinians to build since Israel took over East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967.
