Israel forces Palestinian father of three to demolish part of his own house

Ma’an – Faced with the prospect of paying thousands of dollars in fines to the Israeli municipality that administers occupied East Jerusalem, a Palestinian homeowner has demolished part of his own house.

Nayef Kasteru, a father of three living in the Aqbat As-Saraya neighborhood of Jerusalem's Old City, on Sunday finished dismantling a 49-meter addition he had installed several years earlier without the blessing of Israeli zoning authorities.

The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, a legal aid group, reported that Israeli authorities in April ordered Kasteru to pay NIS 40,000 (about $11,000) in compensation to the municipality to pay the labor costs associated with demolishing the extension, which added a bathroom to his single-bedroom home.

A laborer in an Old City shoe store, Kasteru had neither the means to pay compensation for the demolition nor to hire a lawyer to fight it. He represented himself in an Israeli court, which upheld the stop-work order.

The Old City of East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under a broadly understood interpretation of international law. Israel occupied and illegally annexed the Palestinian half in 1967; as well as the Sinai, West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights; following a brief but decisive war with Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. In 1980, Israel declared the city its "undivided, eternal capital," a move that was not recognized abroad.

Israel's Jerusalem Municipality did not immediately return calls placed after business hours Sunday.