Israeli police and Jerusalem city officials razed an illegal Arab home in the capital Monday, part of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s push to enforce building codes in the city’s largely unregulated Arab neighborhoods.
Dozens of Border Police officers secured the demolition operation, which took place in the Jabal Mukhaber neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem Monday morning.
The 140-square-meter (1,507 square feet) home, which was built 15 years ago without any permit, had been slated for demolition for the past five years.
A day earlier, demolition crews razed several other illegal homes in the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Jabal Mukhaber in eastern Jerusalem.
A recent analysis of data collected by the United Nations found that the number of illegal Arab structures in Jerusalem which were demolished from the beginning of the year through February 7th is at an all-time high under Ben-Gvir.