The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem forced a Palestinian resident of an East Jerusalem neighborhood to demolish his own house under the pretext it was built without a permit otherwise the demolition will be carried out by the municipality at a very high financial cost. Speaking on Voice of Palestine radio, Farouq Mustafa, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyya, recounted how his family was surprised to receive yesterday a notification from the municipality to self-tear down its 120-square-meter house despite a court order freezing the demolition order, noting that the municipality partly demolished it in May. He added that he had paid an exorbitant fine in May to avoid having his house demolished and in an attempt to have the demolition order repealed, but the occupation authorities adamantly forced them to self-demolish it despite the court order freezing the demolition. Using the pretext of illegal construction, the Israeli municipality demolishes houses on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem. At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews with the goal to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city. Source: Palestine News & Information Agency