DEMOLITION IN THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM MUNICIPALITY CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARAB RESIDENTS CONTINUES

27 August 1996

At 4:00 in the morning, Israeli bulldozers entered the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, protected by hundreds of border police and a helicopter, and demolished a non-governmental organization which provides services to the handicapped, the Bourge Luc Luc Society. The Bourge Luc Luc Society, located near the Old City's walls and near the Rockefeller Museum, was entirely destroyed on orders from the Jerusalem Municipality.

The building which houses the Society was built four years ago to serve the handicapped population of the Old City. The Jerusalem Municipality ordered it demolished for having no (very difficult to obtain) building permit.

This afternoon at 1:00 p.m., a press conference was held at the site to protest this latest act of aggression against the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem.

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment condemns this demolition as a needless act. The fact that the Jerusalem Municipality provides very few public services for Palestinians in Jerusalem makes this demolition particularly demonstrative of the strength of the campaign against Arab residents of this city. NGOs like the Society are vitally needed since public institutions do not exist, and its destruction along with the rash of other demolitions in the Jerusalem area further the Jerusalem Municipality's plans for removing Arab residents from the Jerusalem area.

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.