A Palestinian man holds prayer beads as he waits at the Bethlehem checkpoint into Jerusalem on the fourth and last Friday for prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Luay Sababa, Maan Images)

"Make sure your father gets this," the municipal inspector tells a ten-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the Al-Bustan quarter of Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood right under the shadow of the walled Old City.

"This" is a court-approved demolition notice, "No. 59". It's for a house under imminent threat of being torn down by the Israeli authorities because it does not have the requisite building permit.

The demolition notice is headed: "To Unknown Addressee".

"Now they refer to me as 'Unknown'. But they know my name very well - they address payment orders for all municipal and other taxes to me by name," says Moussa Oudeh.

Moussa, father of five, is one of 78 householders in Al-Bustan whose homes are slated for demolition. Since the election of a new Israeli mayor exactly a year ago, ten other houses in Al-Bustan have been bulldozed.

A handful of armed Israeli police and border police bar access to the narrow alleyway.

A small crowd of residents gathers.

An argument breaks out in Hebrew between Sergeant Fares and Moussa, who is flanked by Fakhri Abu Diab, the elected coordinator of the Silwan Committee Against House Demolitions.

"This is the State of Israel, this is the Land of Israel," says the sergeant. "What are you talking about," counters Moussa. "My father, my grandfather, my grandfather's grandfather were all born here. We're from Silwan, you're the occupiers."

"It may be your land, but it's our land too," answers Sergeant Fares.

A balding officer in sunglasses throws his arm around his sergeant's shoulder and escorts him a few metres off. "Cool it," he whispers, "don't get drawn into a political argument, please."

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"What I don't understand," chimes in Fakhri, "is why the provocation. Why come here with your helmets and battledress and rifles and jeeps - to intimidate us? To push us to violence so that you think you can justify what you're doing? If you're going to deliver demolition warrants, why not simply send them in the post, like you do with our taxes?"

"How many demolition notices are you serving today, all 78?" we ask the two baseball-capped city officials. "None of your business," replies the one in the red cap, "You're in our way, clear off!"

"Their policy is to do it in dribs and drabs," explains Mohammad Nakhal, a community coordinator in Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem. "If they did it all at once, the whole world would come down hard on them."

Mohammad has been caught up accidentally: he'd come to Silwan to talk to Fakhri about future tactics for strengthening the peaceful community resistance to active Israeli takeover policies in East Jerusalem.

If for Palestinians the timing of any demolition procedures is always ill-timed, this time it may be ill-timed for Israel as well.

To read the full article please visit Inter Press Service.