MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF BULLDOZERS)
LOURDES GARCIA: Unidentified Man #1: Demolition is very beautiful for somebody who is fascist as you are.
GARCIA: Said Husayni's family claims ownership of the property. His family fought for years to retain the hotel.
SAID HUSAYNI: It is very painful to see this happening. They want to destroy the Arab presence in Jerusalem. They want to end it.
GARCIA: Elisha Peleg is a member of the Jerusalem City Council. He was at the Shepherd Hotel yesterday when the demolition was taking place.
ELISHA PELEG: I don't think that the United States or any other country has the right to interfere in the interior issues in Jerusalem, and now is the time to build Jewish neighborhoods in this area because we have the right to build and to live in any part of Jerusalem.
GARCIA: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Jerusalem.