In the course of a road construction and housing project, a neighbourhood inhabited by Palestinians is to be destroyed in the Istanbul suburb of Basakşehir. After five houses were already forcibly demolished last year, the local government has been starting to prepare a complete demolition of the houses and buildings for a few days now, with intimidation, harassment and threats against the Palestinians living there by dispatched police teams, in order to start the new construction project.
For the new flats to be built on the space, most of the tenancy agreements have already been concluded. They are of course much more expensive - in accordance with the purpose of the whole housing project to make more rental profit - and the Palestinians who have been living there for decades can no longer afford to continue living in the area and are driven away with little compensation. The eviction is justified on absurd reasons. In its threats, the local government spoke of the Palestinian residents as intruders. The residents protested vehemently against this and issued press releases in front of the town hall, denouncing the foul reasoning that they are "intruders" - as people who have lived in the place for over 30 years, paying taxes and for electricity, and significantly caring for the appearance of the neighbourhood. Again, a part of the most oppressed is deprived of any right under chauvinist slogans, and many Palestinians again face expulsion outside their homeland.
