Human rights report reveals severe demographic gap and discriminatory planning policies in occupied Jerusalem

A human rights report issued by the Israeli organization "Bimkom" revealed a dangerous escalation in the discriminatory planning policies pursued by the occupation authorities against Palestinian residents in the occupied city of Jerusalem. The report clarified that the year 2025 witnessed a huge gap in the approval of housing units, as only 600 Palestinian housing units were approved, compared to the approval of about 9,000 housing units for settlers and Jews in the city.

These shocking figures indicate that the Palestinians' share of approved housing plans did not exceed 7%, a figure that is absolutely inconsistent with their demographic size, as they constitute about 40% of Jerusalem's population. This reality reflects a continuous deterioration in housing rights, as Jerusalemites currently benefit from only 26% of the total existing housing units in both parts of the city.

Compared to the previous year, data shows that 2024 saw the approval of two thousand housing units in Palestinian neighborhoods, meaning that 2025 recorded a sharp decrease of approximately 70% in building rights granted to Palestinians. In contrast, Jewish neighborhoods and settlements in 2024 received approvals covering 15,700 housing units, including thousands of units on lands occupied in 1967.

The human rights organization described this situation as an exacerbated freeze of urban planning allocated to Palestinians in East Jerusalem, coupled with a widespread acceleration of settlement projects. This dual policy aims to stifle the natural growth of Jerusalemites and expand the Jewish presence throughout the city, serving clear political and demographic agendas.

Among the most prominent obstacles set by the occupation authorities is the tightening of procedures related to proving land ownership as a basic condition for approving any building plans or issuing permits. This policy is a fatal blow to the Palestinian population, given that the majority of lands in East Jerusalem are still not officially registered in the land registry known as "Tabu" for decades.

The report links the planning freeze to the resumption of "land settlement" procedures pursued by the Israeli government since 2018, a process aimed at registering land ownership whose procedures have not been completed since 1967. Although this process is marketed as a regulatory measure, field results prove that it is a tool for land confiscation and legitimizing control over it for the benefit of Zionist institutions.

The figures reveal that settlement procedures included about 9,000 dunams, but out of 2,300 dunams whose procedures were completed, only 1% was registered in the name of Palestinian owners. In contrast, about 82% of those lands were registered in the name of the occupation state, the Jerusalem municipality, and other public bodies, while the remaining percentage was allocated to private settlement entities.

Human rights sources confirmed that the majority of lands subject to this settlement are immediately allocated for the establishment of new settlements, with work currently underway to push for eight settlements comprising nearly 20,000 housing units. A large part of these massive projects is planned on lands newly registered in the name of the state after being seized from their original owners through the aforementioned settlement mechanism.

For their part, urban planning experts explained that what is happening in Jerusalem is no longer just administrative discrimination, but a systematic process of "demographic engineering" aimed at reshaping the city's identity. While obstacles are removed for thousands of settlement units behind the Green Line, impossible conditions are placed on Palestinians, preventing them from exercising their basic right to housing on their historical lands.

The occupation government had decided last February to end all procedures for settling and registering Jerusalem lands by 2029, with huge budgets allocated for this purpose. Human rights organizations warned that this step aims to entrench Israeli sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem and facilitate the uprooting of Palestinian communities that lack official documents consistent with Israeli standards.

Jerusalemites face impossible difficulties in providing official documents, especially since registration operations that began during the Jordanian administration were forcibly stopped after the occupation of the city in 1967. Experts estimate that only 5% to 10% of the lands are officially registered, leaving the vast majority of the population vulnerable to demolition or confiscation under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

The fragmentation of ownership and the distribution of heirs between inside and outside make proving the right to land an almost impossible task before Israeli courts and committees, which the occupation authorities exploit to implement their plans. These policies continue to push Jerusalemites towards forced migration outside the city limits, as part of a silent struggle over land and identity that intensifies day by day.

Planning policies in Jerusalem have become a central tool for the city's demographic and political engineering, aiming to exclude Palestinians and dispossess them of their lands.