Two-day-old Silwan info center in jeopardy

Jerusalem Post
"We built this place last Sunday, and on Tuesday, the police arrived with orders to knock it down," said Ahmad Qara'een, as he sat inside the Wadi Hilwah Information Center, a 35-sq.m. covered wooden deck erected by residents of east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood.

Qara'een does not dispute the lack of a building permit, although he does maintain that the center was built on privately-owned Palestinian land, with the consent of its owner.

The issue for Qara'een and his colleagues, who built the center to disseminate information about Silwan they say is not made available to the tourists who throng the area, is what they see as a double standard. A number of structures belonging to Jews in Silwan - some only a few doors down from the center - also lack permits, but the city has not issued demolition orders for them.

"It's like a state within a state here," Qara'een said. "The settlers get to do what they want, but we can't have anything. It's like the law doesn't apply to them.".... Full story