UN demands Israel to freeze pending demolishing orders of East Jerusalem homes

Friday May 01, 2009 11:42 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called on the Israeli occupation government to freeze demolishing orders against dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. The Office added that the Palestinians can only build on 13% of Jerusalem’s lands while the Jewish settlements occupy more than 35% of Jerusalem.

The UN office reported that this policy is illegal and comes in direct violation of the International Law.

The UN report said that the houses of more than 60.000 Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing demolition and that the Jerusalem municipality lacks proper investment and construction plans for the overcrowded Palestinian neighborhoods.

The UN added that the situation of Palestinian neighborhoods is worsening especially since many Palestinian residents of Jerusalem living near of the Annexation Wall had to move into the Old City in order to avoid being separated from the City.

The UN office stated that the Jerusalem Municipality only grants 100 to 150 construction permits for the Palestinians each year, while the number of construction permits submitted to the municipality increased from 138 to 283, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

The report also revealed that in the first quarter of 2009, the Israeli occupation government demolished 25 Palestinian residential buildings in the E1 area between Ma'aleh Adumim settlement and East Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation government still intends to demolish 3,000 homes in Area C which is under Israeli occupation forces and civil control, and occupies 60% of the West Bank.

The United Nations said that between the years 2000 and 20007, the Israeli Civil Administration office, which is under the Israeli occupation forces control, rejected 94% of Palestinian applications for construction permits in area C.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.