***image2***Abed El Aziz Fakhry Qdaah from Shuqba, west Ramallah woke up to bulldozers trampling his sonâs family dreams, reducing their future to the leveled ground. The various strategies of Occupationâthe Wall, the settlements, and demolishing housesâ strip Palestinians of their smiles and stability in their life, aiming to completely destroy hopes for a viable future.
At seven A.M., Occupation bulldozers demolished four houses in Shuqba village, under the pretense that the houses have been built without permits. The bulldozers and military jeeps corned off the village center and the western area of the village. After prohibiting the inhabitants to reach there, they began the destruction of house by house. These demolished houses were still under construction, nearly ready for the families to move into. One, belonging to Mustafa Mohamed Qasem, was 85 square meters, another for Mohamed Abed Aziz Fakhry, measured 150 square meters, and Fakhry Abed Aziz and Najeh Ali Hasanâs house measured130 square meters.
***image3***The villagers rushed to defend the houses and stop the bulldozers. Clashes followed and the soldiers assailed the villagers with gas and sounds bombs. Ten more houses in the same western area of the village are slated for house demolition, as well as the villageâs cement factory that manufactures house construction materials. The use of âpermitsâ is a key component of how the Occupation attempts to legitimize to the outside world oppressive control and expulsion of Palestinians. While villagers in Shuqba, like other Palestinian villages, are unable to get âpermissionâ to build houses, this western area of the village is the last space remaining for possible expansion. The village has already been contained to the south and east by Na`ale and Nili settlements and associated settler roads, and to the northwest by the Wall.
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