Quds – Saba:
On Thursday, Israeli occupation authorities forced brothers Walid and Riyad Abu Diab to demolish parts of their homes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan in occupied Quds.
Riyad Abu Diab told the Palestinian news agency Safa that officials from an Israeli court ordered him and his brother to carry out the demolitions themselves under the pretext of "construction without a permit."
He added: "If we refused to self-demolish, the occupation municipality would have forced us to pay 300,000 shekels in demolition fees."
Describing the ordeal, Riyad said: "The self-demolition order is extremely painful—it feels like we’re demolishing our own lives. This is the price of staying steadfast in Quds."
He explained that the Israeli court had ruled days earlier to force his brother Walid to demolish part of the second floor of his home—a 10-square-meter space that included a bedroom and a bathroom. Walid now has only a 20-square-meter area consisting of a bedroom and a kitchen. He lives there with his wife and four children, the eldest being 19 and the youngest 11.
As for Riyad, he was forced to tear down his 13-year-old daughter’s room and a bathroom—a 10-square-meter section of the third floor where he lives. Now, only the kitchen remains, leaving his family effectively homeless.
He noted that Israeli municipality crews had previously demolished two of their family homes—one in 1997 in the Wadi Qaddoum neighborhood of Silwan and his father’s home in 1987.
Riyad pointed out that his father’s ground-floor residence is very old, built nearly 30 years ago, while the second and third floors were added 15 years ago.
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