Days of waiting: Impending house demolitions in Silwan’s al-Abbasiyya neighborhood
Days of waiting: Impending house demolitions in Silwan’s al-Abbasiyya neighborhood
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions issues an urgent and timely report on the situation in a Jerusalem neighborhood.
“The Municipality of Jerusalem continued its discriminatory and aggressive zoning and planning policies by issuing demolition orders for two large apartment buildings in Silwan’s Al Abbasiyya neighborhood on March 5th, 2009. The thirty-four families living in the two buildings were given just 10 days to evacuate their homes, before a demolition scheduled for any time after Sunday March 15, 2009.
The two buildings house over 250 people, including elderly and disabled persons and the Municipality has marked them as “illegal construction”, stating that only the first three floors of each (one is 6 the other 4 stories high) hold a valid license. Neither the landowner nor the Municipality informed any of the inhabitants about the license limitations when the individual housing units were purchased. None of the inhabitants were given prior warning nor offered alternative housing or financial compensation….”
Click to read the full report.