Move to demolish hundreds of Arab apartments ‘destroying every chance of peace’, says Fatah

Ben Lynfield Jerusalem

Israel is planning to destroy hundreds of Palestinian apartments in occupied East Jerusalem in the single largest proposed demolition there since it annexed the area after the 1967 war.

The proposed demolition of structures deemed illegal in the Ras Hamis area, adjoining Shuafat refugee camp, was announced in posters put up on apartment buildings last week.

Standing in front of the 11-storey building where he lives, which sits on a dusty, unpaved street with no pavement in Ras Hamis, Issam Mohammed Ali, a civil engineer, said that 44 families in the block stood to lose their homes. “People don’t have money for another home. If our home is destroyed we can only buy a tent,” said Mr Ali, who is married with two children.

A descendant of refugees from one of the villages destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Mr Ali said that if the demolition went ahead, it would not be the first time his family had lost its home to Israel. “We are ready to die for our home,” he added.

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