ISRAELI SOLDIERS FORCED JERUSALEMITE TO DEMOLISH HIS OWN HOME
Al Quds, Jerusalem, 14 Sha’ban 1434/23 June 2013 (MINA) – The Israeli soldiers forced a Palestinian citizen in the occupied city of Al Quds (Jerusalem) to demolish his home under the pretext that it was built without permit.
The Israel Occupation Authority-controlled Jerusalem municipality forced the citizen Munther Hijazi (57) to demolish his house at Saadia neighborhood in Jerusalem, which is inhabited by nine people, Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
Hijazi said that the occupation ordered him to demolish his house and imposed on him fines of about 80 thousand shekels (about $22 thousand), under the pretext of construction without permit.
He added that thirteen years ago he had paid fines of $36 thousand shekels (about ten thousand dollars), imposed by an Israeli court in Jerusalem for illegal construction.
Meanwhile, Israeli press sources claimed that the number of settlers in the West Bank has become almost equal to half the number of Palestinian citizens there, and is still increasing.
According to Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, there are more than 1.4 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while about 700 thousand of Jews live in the region, including 385 thousand in the West Bank and 300 thousand others in Jerusalem.
It described this increase of the Jewish population as “amazing”, noting that the number of settlers in the West Bank has doubled since the second Intifada (uprising).
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. They consist of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; the Gaza Strip, (though Israel disputes this and argues that since the implementation of its disengagement from Gaza in 2005 it no longer occupies the territory); much of the Golan Heights; and, until 1982, the Sinai Peninsula.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip are also referred to as the Palestinian territories or “Occupied Palestinian Territory”. The Palestinian Authority, the EU, the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council consider East Jerusalem to be part of the West Bank and occupied by Israel; Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital and sovereign territory.
The International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council regards Israel as the “Occupying Power”. The term “Occupying Power” has taken on a precise legal meaning following the International Court of Justice advisory opinion in July 2004 that Israel is occupying this territory in violation of international law. The Israeli High Court of Justice concurs with this language, and has ruled that Israel holds the West Bank under “belligerent occupation”.
Israeli governments have preferred the term “disputed territories” in the case of the West Bank.
The first use of the term ‘territories occupied’ was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 following the Six Day War in 1967, which called for “the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East” to be achieved by “the application of both the following principles. Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict. Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 (see Jerusalem Law) and the Golan Heights in 1981 (see Golan Heights Law) has not been recognised by any other country. United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 declared the annexation of Jerusalem “null and void” and required that it be rescinded. United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 also declared the annexation of the Golan “null and void”. (T/P03/P04)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
