Israeli authorities force Palestinians to demolish their own homes

What would you do if someone demolished your home and sent you the bill to pay for the demolition costs?

By Iqbal Tamimi

We are used to seeing the Israeli authorities demolish Palestinian homes, but what you do not know that Palestinians are forced to demolish their own homes by their own hands. How cruel can that be?
I have witnessed that myself years ago in the town of Halhul near my home town Alkhaleel (Hebron), but this crime is back more than ever.
First, the Zionist immigrants forced the Palestinians 1948 to flee from their homes after showing them what might happen to them should they stay, a number of massacres were committed by the Zionist gangsters who warned them if they stay they will be slaughtered like their neighbours.
Thousands of Palestinians left their homes, properties, lands, memories personal belonging and became refugees in other Palestinian towns and cities of the West bank, in neighbouring countries, and abroad in USA and other countries like South America and Europe.

This was not enough; Israel would not declare its borders because the plan is to expand further. In 1967 Israel occupied the West bank as well, and started again to force the Palestinians refugees and otherwise to leave, implementing so many different ways that an article would not accommodate the story, but one of such plans is to make life unbearable and impossible for every family to stay.

Palestinian families grow, their children as well, they need an extra room for the ones who are getting married or the one who is sick and can’t live in the same room with everybody else, but since Israel is controlling everything would not give them any permissions to make a door or open a window let alone build an extra room on their own land, they were forced to build extra rooms any way.

Some people could not stay idle after years of refusal of tens of requests for a building permit. Mosa Mashahreh was one of those who were forced to demolish his own home by his own hands few days ago. He was told if he would not demolish his own home, they will do that themselves and as usual they will send the Palestinian whose home was demolished the bill. Palestinians are forced to pay the demolition cost of their homes, and the bill for the Israeli CAT is very high that those unfortunate poor Palestinians are forced to demolish their own homes by their own hands to cut their losses further.

Mashahreh who is supporting a big family of 6 is now homeless and penniless now, and has nowhere to go after knocking down his home. On November 2, 2009 he sent a plea asking for help, his 48m square home which housed 6 people in the Sala’a neighbourhood at Mount Almokabber in Jerusalem is now a pile of rubble. He built his home 9 years ago because the Israeli authorities would not permit him to build, so he has sacrificed everything twice, for there no justice at all.
At a time thousands of illegal Jewish settlers are housed on stolen Palestinian lands, the Palestinians are deprived of a roof over their heads. This is the cruelest thing one can imagine and this is the so called only democratic state in the Middle East the Western politicians are bragging about.