WASHINGTON: The United Nations has called on Israel to stop its program of demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and to address the mounting housing crisis for Palestinians in the city.
Israelis raze scores of Palestinian homes every year under the pretext that the homes were built without obtaining Israeli building permits.
Critics say the demolitions are part of an effort to extend Israeli control of East Jerusalem and push out the Palestinians. Meanwhile, illegal Israeli Jewish settlements continue to pop up in the area that would become the Palestinian capital under the two-state solution. The 21-page report released yesterday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is the latest round in an intensifying campaign on the issue.
Although Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has defended the planning policy as even-handed, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out in March against demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem during her visit there. Such activities are “not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the road map,” she said, referring to the US-backed peace plan
Also, during a recent visit to East Jerusalem, Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called for an immediate end to the demolitions that he said are “not helpful” and are fueling tensions at a time when “the international community is trying to relaunch a results-oriented peace process.”
An internal report for EU diplomats described the demolitions as “illegal under international law” and said they “fuel bitterness and extremism.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 War and later unilaterally annexed it, a move not recognized by the international community.
The UN said that of the 70.5 sq km of East Jerusalem and the West Bank annexed by Israel, only 13 percent was zoned for Palestinian construction. Most of that zone was already built up. At the same time 35 percent of this territory had been expropriated for Israeli settlements, even though all settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.
The report said the houses of some 60,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are at risk of being demolished. The report also says that a lack of proper planning and investment means that Palestinian neighborhoods are overcrowded and suffer from inadequate infrastructure.
The situation has become worse in recent years, it said, because the construction of the separation wall led many Palestinians who were living east of it to move to East Jerusalem to avoid being cut off from the city.
“Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have demolished thousands of Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied Palestinian Territories,” said the report, “including an estimated 2,000 houses in East Jerusalem.
The report lamented the effect of the demolitions on Palestinian children. “Children, who represent over 50 percent of the Palestinian population, are particularly affected by the displacement of their families,” the report states. “In the immediate aftermath of demolitions, children often face gaps in education and limited access to basic services.”
Families who lose their homes are faced with the choice of moving into cramped tenement buildings with relatives or renting new homes. They face “significant hardships”, including having their property destroyed and struggling with debts from fines and legal fees, the UN report added. It said that more than half of the displaced families took at least two years to find new permanent residences and often moved several times in the process. The disruption to family life associated with these evictions is causing children to miss school and suffer emotional and behavioral problems for months, resulting in poor academic performance over the longer term.
“Recent events indicate that the Jerusalem municipality will maintain, and possibly accelerate, its policy on house demolition,” the report goes on to say. “Israel should immediately freeze all pending demolition orders and undertake planning that will address the Palestinian housing crisis in East Jerusalem.”
The authorities in Jerusalem challenged the UN report and denied “the accusations and numbers throughout.”
Israel’s Jerusalem municipality accepted there was a “planning crisis” but said it was “not just in eastern Jerusalem but throughout all of Jerusalem that affects Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.”
It said the mayor would present a new plan for the city.
