Hours separate 10 Jerusalemite families from the decision to demolish their residential building in Al-Tur
An unknown fate awaits 10 families living in an apartment building in the village of Al-Tur, after a decision issued by the Ministry of Interior to demolish the building on the pretext of building without a permit.
Hours separate the residents of the building from the demolition decision and its entry into effect, after giving them until the 9thof this month to pay 200,000 shekels to the court fund to postpone the demolition until the end of the month and on the condition that the building is self-demolished. The second option was paying the costs of the demolition “the demolition fee for the municipality’s crews and vehicles and the forces accompanying them.” The fee may reach up to 2 million shekels.
In front of the two options, the families affirmed their refusal to self-demolish, explaining that they submitted an appeal to the Jerusalem District Court, and are awaiting a response.
In the 5-storey residential building, the families of Al Khalfawi, Abu Sbitan, Ashour, Joudeh, Abu Al-Halawa, Al-Ghouj, and Bader live. Some of them have more than one apartment, and they are 67 people, including 31 children.
The families explained that the building had been in existence for about 10 years, and had worked for years to issue a “building permit” for it. They were able to postpone previous demolition decisions because they are in the process of licensing, but the final decision came under the pretext of “demolition in order to build a school, and before that the municipality pretexted the demolition in favor of building a street in its place.”
The families pointed out that the municipality imposed on each family 75,000 shekels as a "building violation", and 82,000 shekels as a "property tax."
