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Two Palestinian families on Thursday demolished the homes in which they had lived for nearly two decades, saying they preferred to destroy them rather than considering the coming of Israelis.
In two hours, two diggers broke down the ceilings, walls and floors of the two buildings of Beit Hanina, a village on the outskirts of East Jerusalem.
Jihad Shawamreh, 50, a taxi driver, said that he had built his six-room house in 2000 and that his ex-wife Fawzia, their six children and other relatives were living there until Thursday.
(Photo: Reuters)
The demolition was the culmination of a long legal battle. The Supreme Court of Israel ruled in January that the land on which the houses were built had been under Jewish ownership since 1974 and that documents submitted by Palestinian families in support of their claims had been forged.
The families argued that they had bought the parcels in good faith and believed that they were the rightful owners.
"I built (my house) with my own hands, it's there that I raised my children, it's there that they grew up", says Shawamreh as the digger Hyundai went to work.
"We destroyed the houses for fear of seeing settlers moving in and seeing them inside the house."
The Israeli Land Fund, whose declared goal is "to acquire all land of Israel for the Jewish people," announced on its website after the court's decision, there at six months, "4 idealistic families" homes.
(Photo: Reuters)
The group's director, Arieh King, told Reuters that there was no immediate construction project. He said that the land had been sold by its original Israeli owners to other Israeli buyers, but did not identify them.
The council in Jerusalem is a particularly sensitive question. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, while Israel sees Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that has not been internationally recognized. Israel captured the territory of Jordan during the Six Day War in 1967.
Shawamreh said that the demolition cost 30,000 shekels ($ 8,200) and that he had refused offers of money from Israeli settlers to leave the buildings standing.
Shawamreh's neighbor, Zeinat Abu Rumeileh, 62, said, "I'm not able to look, I was afraid, of course, but we did not think it would happen, or even happen. " 19659013]
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