‘I had to bulldoze my house’
Ahmad Musa al-Qumbar said he faced huge fines for building his home without a legal permit
Walking through the ruins of what used to be his home, 29-year-old Ahmad Musa al-Qumbar always feared the Jerusalem city authorities would come after him. The married Palestinian father-of-four built the modest single-storey building seven years ago, on land he owns and where his family have lived for generations.
But Ahmad never actually had a legal permit to build.
He lives in the Jabal Mukaber district of East Jerusalem. Within sight of the Old City and its many historic religious monuments, it is one of the most densely populated and fiercely contested parts of the region. It was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, and later annexed, but is widely regarded internationally as Palestinian territory.
Control of Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues of the decades-old conflict. Palestinians officially claim East Jerusalem as their capital, while Israel considers the whole of the city as its capital.
“Who” is allowed to build “where” in the city is a big part of that battle.
The rate at which Palestinian homes are being demolished in occupied East Jerusalem has almost doubled since the start of the conflict in Gaza, say human rights groups and monitoring organisations. The demolitions are ordered by the Israeli-run municipal authority which says that many buildings, like Ahmad’s, are illegally built without permission.
One NGO, Ir Amim, says that “under the cover of war”, Israel is “forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes and the city”.