An Israeli court on Sunday issued a demolition order for two apartments in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, claiming they had been built without the necessary permits.
The Siyam family, which owns the apartments, said they were built 21 years ago, and over the course of years they have spent 600,000 shekels ($154,000) in fines to Israeli authorities, in addition to fees paid trying to obtain a construction license.
One of the owners, Dawood Abed al-Razzaq Siyam told Ma'an that the Israeli judge had given the family two weeks to demolish the apartments themselves. Otherwise, the family faces demolition costs and a penalty fine, while Dawood would be jailed for four months.
The two apartments constitute the third and fourth stories of a five-story building. Together, they currently house 13 people, the families of Dawood's two brothers, Ayyub and Mahir.
Dawood said that the first two stories, as well as the fifth story -- where he lives with his family of eight -- are not included in the demolition order.
Dawood said that two weeks earlier he paid the Jerusalem municipality a fine of 25,000 shekels ($6,400) for the fifth floor, but he said that the court was unconcerned by the fact that demolishing the third and fourth floors inevitably meant demolishing the fifth.
He said that the judge "insulted and humiliated" him by refusing to listen to his defense, and added that the Israeli "occupation doesn't want any Jerusalemite in the city."
Dawood said that the judge told him the demolition of his home would be "a gift to the state of Israel."
Silwan is one of many Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem that is seeing an influx of Israeli settlers at the cost of home demolitions and the eviction of Palestinian families.
In August, the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department slammed what it termed Israel's "systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" in Silwan.
The department said that Israeli policies "in Silwan aim not only to alter the historic character of the area and to consolidate Israeli control over the Old City of Jerusalem ... but also contribute to the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem."
As of September this year, 29 Palestinian homes have been demolished in occupied East Jerusalem, leaving 29 Palestinians homeless, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem.
Nearly 579 homes have been destroyed in the city over the last twelve years, leaving 2,133 Palestinians homeless in total, the group reports.
