Land Research Center states that Israel has been systematically demolishing Palestinian neighborhoods since 1967.
A Palestinian boy looks on as municipality workers demolish a house in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Tzur Baher, Tuesday, October 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)
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A new Palestinian report reveals that Israel demolished five thousand homes in Jerusalemsince 1967 as well as the demolition of neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the city.
The report, issued by the Land Research Center (LRC), also noted that the 380,000 Jerusalemite Palestinians need 2,000 new housing units annually, and that half of them today live in unlicensed homes.
Permits
According to the report, Jerusalem’s municipality has put in place a series of procedures that would make Palestinian construction in Jerusalem impossible.
- According to UN data, Israel approved only 1.5 percent of all requests for building permits submitted by Palestinians between 2010 and 2014.
- According to the LRC report, only 12% of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem can be used for urban development, of which only 7% is zoned for residential housing.
- An earlier report by the Israeli NGO B’tselem confirms those findings, saying that “some 15% of the land area in East Jerusalem (about 8.5% of Jerusalem’s municipal jurisdiction) is zoned for residential use by Palestinian residents, although Palestinians currently account for 40% of the city’s population.”
- As of 2017, more than 20,000 housing units have been built without permits in East Jerusalem.
- The cost of a permit is estimated at $30,000 a home.
Displacement
- In 1948, Israeli forces demolished 39 villages around Jerusalem and displaced about 198,000 Palestinian residents.
- The report also says that about 6,500 Jerusalemites left before the 1948 war and about 30,000 after the war.
- 16,000 Jews were housed in homes and dwellings whose Palestinian owners were expelled between September 1948 and August 1949.
- In 1967, 70,000 Jerusalemites were displaced, including Jerusalemites who were outside the city and were prevented from returning to it.
- Since 2000: According to the detailed report, Israel demolished 1,706 homes between 2000 and 2017, displacing 9,422 Palestinians, including 5,443 children.
