Ramallah: The residents of Al Bustan neighborhood of Occupied East Jerusalem have submitted a building blueprint to rebuild their houses meeting all the municipal conditions, requirements and standards adopted by the Occupied Jerusalem Municipality which has instisted on demolishing the entire neighborhood claiming that all the houses built in Al Bustan were illegal.
Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the Silwan Defense Committee told Gulf News that Al Bustan residents have hired a well known Israeli consulting company to prepare the blueprint according to international standards to meet all the conditions and requirements demanded by the Jerusalem Municipality.
“We only demanded from the municipality to inform us about the reasons for the rejection, but the municipality refused to give any reason for the refusal stressing that the rejection is final and would not give any reasons for the decision,” he said.
“The Jerusalem Municipality’s rejection is based on political grounds only,” he stressed.
“We have reached a deadlock with the Occupied Jerusalem Municipality which refused all our compromises and projects to come over this problem,” he said.
The Occupied Jerusalem Municipality had decided to demolish Al Bustan neighborhood to replace it with a Jewish National Park. The Municipality is currently suing Al Bustan residents under the pretext that their houses were not licensed and should be demolished.
The Israeli Municipal Court in Occupied Jerusalem has ordered the demolition of a house owned by a Palestinian resident of Silwan neighbourhood giving him and family until the middle of July to evacuate.
