The occupation authorities have called for the demolition of 150 apartments in north-east Jerusalem. The demolitions will clear the way for building the ghetto around Anata and Shu’fat refugee camp as part of the overall program to Judaize Jerusalem.
***image2***On April 2, the occupation handed out house demolition orders for dozens of Palestinian families in the area of Ras Shahadeh, a quarter of Dahiet as Salam in the northern part of Jerusalem, on the pretext of “unlicensed buildings”. The targeted apartments are located in three big buildings and are currently home to some 1000 people. The residents point out that licenses from the Occupation are almost impossible to obtain for Palestinians in Jerusalem and that these demolition orders are rather part of Israeli policies to rid Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants and thus to expel and to ghettoize as many Palestinians as possible, shifting the demographic balance to guarantee the settlers a majority in the city of Jerusalem. These150 apartments will in fact add to the 3800 Palestinian houses in Jerusalem and its neighbourhoods that are already under destruction orders.
The orders are accompanied by the parallel construction of the Wall and settlement roads in the area. At this stage, the settlement roads to the North and East and the Wall to the South and the West completely encircle the area, including Shu’fat refugee camp, Dahiet as Salam, Ras Khamis and Ras Shahadeh. Additional land has been confiscated for the Wall, and the colonies of Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill, established on the lands of Shu’fat and Anata, are gaining expansion room through the construction of these apartheid structures.
This small area already has to cope with an extremely high population density, being home to some 47 400 people. With this new program of destruction and planned theft that density will be further increased. With the continued turning of the relentless Israeli screw, life within the ghetto will soon be unbearable.
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