Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or someone appointed by him is pushing Israel Police to expedite the razing of Beit Yonatan, the controversial building located in the Shiloach area of the capital. According to the Makor Rishon report, the Prime Minister’s Office is applying pressure on Jerusalem City Hall, preventing the carrying out of demolition orders in the Arab sector.

During a hearing in the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday, attorney Shachar Ben-Ami, representing Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, discovered that pertaining to Beit Yonatan, there are instructions from the government level to police not to block legal action against the structure, i.e., the execution of the demolition order in compliance with a High Court of Justice ruling.

Speaking on the record in court on Thursday, Ben-Ami stated that last month, police received instructions not to cooperate with Jerusalem City Hall in the matter of Beit Yonatan, citing “senior officials or the Prime Minister’s Office” as the source of those instructions.

Ben-Ami told the court that hundreds of demolition orders are not enforced and in the case of Beit Yonatan, there appears to be a tenacious fury towards actualizing the demolition orders expeditiously, calling on the court to accept City Hall’s opposition to the move.

The mayor’s office has released statements that law enforcement must be even-handed, and carried out in all sectors, Jewish and Arab equally.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)