The Left Independent ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿𓅃

💢🇵🇸 “We don't follow court orders, and we don't wait for the courts. We're the army.” Israeli forces demolished five residential buildings containing 12 apartments in Biddu, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, on Thursday, displacing 105 Palestinians. Soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at residents and prevented families from retrieving their belongings. “Five or six bulldozers suddenly showed up without any warning, notice, or notification,” Ahmed Abu Eid told Drop Site’s Mutasem Sqf ElHait. When residents said their lawyer had told them the demolitions were prohibited, soldiers responded, “Forget the lawyer. We're going to demolish it. That's final.” Ghazi Al-Sheikh, whose home was also demolished, said the families had received only stop-work orders, not demolition orders, and that their court cases were still ongoing. “I told the soldier, ‘I've posted documents on the door of my house of the ongoing court case.’ He told me, ‘We don't follow court orders, and we don't wait for the courts. We're the army. We come out and demolish.’” “All of this is meant to put pressure on us, surround us, and forcibly displace us. This is their long-term policy,” Al-Sheikh said. “But God willing, we'll remain right here, on top of this rubble. If not us, then our children. We're not leaving.” “Our homes are no more important than the homes of Gaza. They've wiped Gaza entirely. Are our homes more important? No. I swear to God, they're not,” he added. 🎥 Mutasem Sqf ElHait