Quds Media Center – Sources -

Occupation bulldozers have demolished, on Wednesday, an old Palestinian house in Abbasid neighborhood in Silwan town east of occupied Jerusalem.

Head of the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, Fakhri Abu Diab, confirmed that Israeli bulldozers belonging to the municipality of Jerusalem have demolished the house of Montacer Sarhan under the pretext that it was established without permit, warning against such systematic policy that aims to demolish Palestinian houses adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque to complete the “ethnic cleansing ” around it.

Abu Diab said in a press statement on Wednesday that despite the small size of the house however it has a great value as being built since more than a hundred years before the establishment of the Jewish state.

He pointed out that the bulldozers uprooted olive trees surrounding the old house, “in an attempt to blur any historical landmarks that prove the Palestinian Islamic heritage in the occupied Jerusalem.”

For its part, the Islamic – Christian Commission for the Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites has denounced the demolishing of Sarhan’s house, considering this measure is part of a systematic policy practiced by the occupation in order to expel Jerusalem’s natives.

The occupation is practicing punitive house demolition policy as a collective punishment against the Palestinians, especially in the territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, the commission stated in a statement.

It also warned against the continued escalation of settlement process regardless of any agreement reached on the Palestinian territories.