On Monday morning, Israeli occupation authorities compelled a Palestinian to demolish his home in Isawiya town, northeast of the occupied capital, Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank.
Media sources said the army and the city council in occupied Jerusalem denied appeal against the demolition.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) said the Palestinian had to demolish his home to avoid the excessively high fines and fees he would face if the city council used its workers and equipment to demolish the property.
This coercive practice, common across occupied Jerusalem, forces Palestinians to carry out self-demolitions under threat of steep fines and imprisonment.
The pretext is always the same; lack of building permits, which the Israeli municipality systematically denies to Palestinian applicants.
Rather than granting legal housing rights, the occupation enforces home demolitions that violate international law and strip Palestinians of shelter.
These policies are part of a broader campaign if illegal collective punishment meant to forcibly displace Palestinians from Jerusalem while expanding illegal Israeli colonies throughout the city and its surroundings.
While Israel continues to build and expand its illegal colonies, Palestinian communities and towns in occupied Jerusalem and various areas in the occupied West Bank continue to be denied the right to build homes and property under various allegations meant to prevent the expansion of Palestinian towns and neighborhoods.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
