Israeli forces demolish three Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces demolished three homes in Jabal al-Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday, igniting anger and underlining the severe state of inequality between Palestinians and Israelis. 

"Racists, racists, get out", one Palestinian shouted at the Israeli police moments after the Beshir family home was levelled. 

Several young Palestinians threw rocks from atop buildings at the Israeli police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. Over thirty Palestinians were injured. 

At least thirty-seven residential and non-residential buildings belonging to Palestinians in East Jerusalem have been destroyed since the start of the year. Most buildings were demolished for lacking permits which are hard to obtain, while others were demolished or sealed as a punitive measure. Israel, as a policy, seals or destroys the homes of Palestinians who attack Israelis. Human rights groups call it collective punishment. 

"We couldn't get a building permit," Adham Beshir, 50, told The New Arab. "They [the Israeli police] wanted us to demolish the home, but we couldn't bear it," he added. 

Adham's home and his son's Muhanad were demolished this morning. 

The demolitions come amid heightened tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, with at least forty-seven Palestinians killed by Israeli fire so far in 2023. Ten Israelis were killed in the same period, including two children, in a car-ramming attack last Friday near the Ramot settlement in the occupied West Bank. 

🚨BREAKING
As tens of thousands begin nationwide strike and poised to converge on the Knesset in WJ to protest the government’s planned assault on democracy, Israeli forces demolish numerous Palestinian homes in Jabal Mukaber, EJ.
1/ pic.twitter.com/lLnbjdROPe

— Ir Amim English (@IrAmimAlerts) February 13, 2023

Following the car-ramming attack, the Israeli cabinet recognised nine Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank. 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that in the coming days, the Israeli parliament would adopt legislation allowing the revoking of Israeli citizenship of assailants and their expulsion.

Netanyahu also revealed that his cabinet is preparing a "wide-ranging operation against those who carry out terrorism, and their supporters, in eastern Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria."

With or without "constitutional reform," the Government of #Israel formalized - under its internal law, and in violation of int'l law - 9 settlement outposts last night, built in whole or in part on privately owned #Palestinian land and home to the most violent settlers: pic.twitter.com/cPPlhVlaiW

— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) February 13, 2023

PLO Secretary General Husseini Sheikh said that the Palestinian leadership is examining ways to respond to Israel's decision to recognise settlement outposts. 

"This is considered an open war on the Palestinian people and requires immediate international intervention and binding decisions that would force the occupation to stop its aggression and its measures."