The occupation demolishes the house of Rajeh Hawareen in Shu’fat and displaces the residents
The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished on Wednesday morning a residential house owned by Rajeh Hawareen in the neighborhood of Shu’fat north of Jerusalem for the purpose of opening a settlement street (Street 21) to connect the settlements of Ramat Shlomo and Pisgat Ze’ev.
A large force including Israeli police and Special Forces along with municipality employees raided the house around 4 a.m. and surrounded it; it was demolished without prior notice.
Rajeh Hawareen explained that he built his house in 2001 and filed the necessary documents in order to obtain a building permit; the municipality informed him that it will be approved. A year later, the municipality informed him that the approval has been put on hold under the pretext of “re-dividing the area”. Afterwards, it was revealed that a settlement project was to be implemented in the neighborhood of Shu’fat to serve the settlers of Ramat Shlomo and Pisgat Ze’ev; the project was approved by the Local and District Committees in the municipality.
Hawareen added that the municipality issued a decision to demolish the house in 2012. He tried to cancel the decision but the Israeli courts refused his request and ratified the demolition of the house and displacement of its residents.
He pointed out that the house is 150 square meters where a family of 8 individuals live (Father, mother and six children; oldest is 26 and youngest is 10).
Hawareen also mentioned that the municipality had demolished his home in the area of Tal Al-Fool in Beit Hanina in 2001. Immediately afterwards, he started building in Shu’fat and attempted to obtain a building permit but to no avail.
