Palestinian families in East Jerusalem are actively demolishing their own homes to avoid devastating financial penalties and structural fees imposed by the Israeli-run Jerusalem Municipality.
The forced clearing of the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in the larger Silwan district aims to make way for a state-backed biblical theme park called the King’s Garden Park.
If city bulldozers and security forces tear down the house, the family is billed for the entire cost. For instance, one resident, Jalal al-Tawil, was quoted 280,000 shekels (over Rs 90,00,000) for a state-led demolition, according to a report by The Guardian.
A resident argues with a member of the Israeli police forces during the demolition of a structure in the al-Bustan area of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, on February 10, 2026.
Photo Credit: AFP
If he hired equipment and labour himself, it would cost him less than a tenth of that. He told the publication that the decision was akin to being given the choice between suicide or murder.
“Also, if they do it, they will uproot the land and make a complete mess,” he said.
Another resident, Abu Diab, is still clearing the 43,000 shekel (over Rs 14,00,000) fine the municipality charged him to mow his house down. He also had to pay 9,000 shekels (almost Rs 3,00,000) for the sandwiches the police ate while they were overseeing the operation.
Over 57 homes in Al-Bustan have been cleared in the last two years, and 8 are to be demolished in the next few weeks.
The land clearance is driven by an archaeological and tourism expansion tied to the nearby City of David site. The project aims to reconstruct a park dedicated to King Solomon and King David.
The idea of the theme park had already been in the books for two decades, and the bulldozers had been postponed till now because of protests by Palestinians, international opposition and conflicting perspectives within Israeli politics.
“Israel is not willing to recognise the bi-national, multi-ethnic, multicultural reality of Jerusalem and it is wiping out first and foremost Palestinians – but really anything that is not Jewish, and then glossing it over with this Disneyfied nonsense,” said Aviv Tatarsky, a senior researcher at Ir Amim, a group that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem.
“If this happens to the end, Israelis will go there and they will see the story of the park and they will be completely ignorant of the fact that lives were destroyed, a whole community was destroyed to make space for it,” he added.
What The Jerusalem Municipality Says
However, the Jerusalem municipality told the +972 news site that the theme park was “being constructed for the benefit of all city residents”.
“This area was never zoned for residential use, and the Jerusalem municipality is now working to build a park in an area that suffers from a severe shortage of open public spaces,” it said.
Under municipal zoning regulations, Palestinian properties built without permits are subject to demolition orders. However, obtaining these building permits is nearly impossible for Arab residents due to highly restrictive, discriminatory municipal planning.
Abu Diab contradicted the municipality’s statement by saying that the community had presented a plan for the district with a lot of green space, but it was ruled out at the political level. He also stated that his home, along with others, is dated long before the Israelis occupied Palestine.