Israel forces Palestinian mother of four to demolish her home in Jerusalem

The Israeli authorities forced a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem on Sunday to demolish her home in Batn al-Hawa in the village of Silwan. 

Speaking to The New Arab, Nisreen Tayeh, a single mother of four, said that the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem forced her to demolish her house "under the pretext that it was built without a permit."

"They (Israelis) claimed that my house is located in area C, which is under full Israeli control," she said. "I was forced to demolish my house by myself to avoid paying fines and prohibitive demolition fees set by the municipality."

"I do not know where I should live with my four orphaned kids (...) we do not have an alternative house," she added. 

She called on international human rights to pay attention to the Palestinians' suffering amid the Israeli occupation, which insists on expelling people from their lands at any cost. 

For many years, dozens of people have been forced to demolish their own properties in East Jerusalem as Israeli occupation authorities seek to make way for the extension of a national park. 

Human rights organizations have released numerous reports over the years showing that Israeli authorities seldom issue building permits to Palestinian residents despite the extremely overcrowded living conditions in occupied Jerusalem.

According to the United Nations, one-third of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem do not have a building permit. As a result, over 100,000 people living in these buildings are at risk of being displaced.

Many Palestinian families take the risk of building without permits, knowing their houses could be demolished in the future. 

In the 1948 war, about 957,000 Palestinians, or 66 per cent of the Palestinians who lived in historical Palestine, were expelled and displaced.

The remaining Palestinians continued to live in their cities, which were inside Israel's 1948 border. They were subsequently given Israeli citizenship and today make up 21 per cent of Israel's total population of more than 9.3 million.

Palestinians in Israel have suffered various forms of discrimination, according to rights groups reports.