Palestinians won’t leave damaged homes

JERUSALEM: After Israel ordered the evacuation of three homes in occupied East Jerusalem due to severe structural damage caused by settler-led tunnel construction, Palestinian residents have refused to leave.

And they have accused Israel of indirectly attempting to expel them from the city.

The homes are in the Wadi Hilweh area of Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood south of the Old City walls, where Israel frequently allows excavations and archaeological digs that threaten the structural integrity of Palestinian homes and holy sites.

Rights groups claim the excavations often seek to promote Jewish heritage and attachment to the occupied city, while erasing Palestinian history.

Last October, Unesco denounced Israel for failing to put an end to the practice.

Israel’s Jerusalem municipality issued the evacuation orders to Hamed Oweida, Abed Oweida, and Suleiman Oweida after cracks formed at the base of their houses, which are occupied by 16 people, including 10 children.

Family members said that after calling Israeli police to report that their houses were shaking from the digging below, a municipality inspection team arrived and ordered the families to evacuate the homes immediately, due to them being at risk of imminent collapse.

Palestinian residents in Wadi Hilweh have long reported sounds of underground digging and the resultant cracks appearing on the walls of their ageing homes, but the Oweidas said that the “life-threatening” damage in their homes seen in recent weeks was “more severe than ever before”.

However, Khadija Oweida said her family would not leave.

“We have been living in these houses for decades, despite cracks in the foundations and despite the risks,” she said.

While the municipality says the buildings have become too dangerous to inhabit, Oweida explained that if the families abandoned the houses, they also ceded control over what happened to them. – Ma’an