Facing fines and jail time, East Jerusalem brothers see no other option than to demolish their homes themselves.
According to Israeli human rights organisation B'tselem, Israel has demolished 782 homes in the past several years leaving more than 2,000 Palestinians homeless. About 103 additional homes, soon to be 104, were destroyed by the owners to avoid fines.
Restrictive Israeli policies on home construction in East Jerusalem are part of a wider two-tiered discriminatory Israeli plan aimed at solidifying a Jewish majority in Jerusalem, according to Human Rights Watch.
"Residency revocations are part of a range of policies that include unlawful settlement expansion, home demolitions, and restrictions on building in the city that have shifted the demographics in East Jerusalem." an HRW report said.
"It is a whole new level of depravity when an oppressor makes their victims pay for their own oppression, which is what Israel does by sending bills to Palestinians whose homes were demolished,"
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