March 1^st 2021, Jerusalemite Nidal As-Salayma demolished his own house, complying to the occupation municipality orders, on the pretext of building without a license in Wad Qaddum neighborhood in Silwan town south Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The targeted house has a total area of (35 m²), and built of bricks and steal sheets. The house is a home for a family of 5, 3 of which are children (the oldest is 7 years old), and the youngest is 1 year and a half.

Citizen Nidal As-Salayma told LRC:

“I built a house few months ago, to provide a proper home for my family, but the Occupation municipality employees showed up at the location, took pictures of the house, and told me that the house was built without a license, and should be demolished.

The Occupation municipality representatives shortly showed up on my door front, and told me to demolish the house with my own hands or otherwise the occupation municipality will carry out the demolition and make me pay for all the costs. Consequently, I decided to carry out the demolition myself. Monday, March 1^st I decided to carry out the demolition.

Noteworthy, The Israeli Occupation municipality in Jerusalem forces Jerusalemites to demolish their own houses, and in case they did not comply to its decision , it carries out the demolition and make the owner pay all costs starting from machineries ending to employees payments, that may reach thousands of Shackles, then the municipality forces them to remove the rubble, or they will be fined.

About Silwan:[1]

1 Km south Jerusalem, Silwan is surrounded by Jerusalem (north & east), the green line (west) , Ath-Thori and Jabal Al-Mukabir (south).

Silwan has an area of 1,400 dunums, 855 of them are the town’s built up area.

[1] GIS-LRC

Protecting marginalized communities in Jerusalem through legal support and advocacy

This report was prepared with EU funding, the contents of this document do not reflect positions of the European Union