Arab, but not Jewish, houses for demolition in Jerusalem
Palestine-Israel, Local, 2/9/1998

While hundreds of Arab houses in East Jerusalem face the threat of demolition based on municipal allegations that they were built without licenses, owners of illegal houses built by Jews in the city of Jerusalem, both in West and East sectors, can sleep well at night without having much to worry about.

The deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Haim Miller, admitted last week that he would be happy to demolish houses built illegally by Arabs but would not authorize the demolition of any house built by a Jew. "I never signed and will never sign an order to demolish a Jewish house but only houses owned by Arabs," said Miller.

Last week, Miller was acting mayor of the city, as mayor Ehud Olmert was out of the country. The legal department of the municipality applied for his approval of ten decisions to demolish a number of houses built by Jews without permits. The decisions were issued by both the director general of the municipality, Raanan Dinor, and Asa Alivav, controller of construction department in the municipality.

They prepared a list of sites that were to be demolished, including a relay station used by Israel's leading wireless communications company, Motorola. Uzi Simon, the municipality comptroller, released some eight months ago strong criticism against Miller because he refused to ratify a decision to demolish an appendix to a house built by an ultra-orthodox Jew living in Shufat neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian sources in East Jerusalem said the Israeli authorities have targeted hundreds of Arab houses for demolition applying double standards with regard to Arab and Jewish houses allegedly built without licenses. The sources noted that for Jews, applying for permits is not a nightmare as it is for Palestinians who sometimes are forced to wait for years to no avail.

Previous Stories:
  Israel: we'll do what we want, international order for the weak   (2/6/1998)
  Israel demolishes more Palestinian houses   (2/4/1998)
  Israeli army to demolish homes   (12/15/1997)

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