The Stark Rise in Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem in 2019

2019 marks the second to highest record of home demolitions in East Jerusalem in the last two decades. 104 housing units were demolished in 2019, constituting a 44% increase from 2018 and an overall deviation from the decline in the trend over the past few years. Due to the municipality’s longstanding policy of neglecting to approve outline plans for the city’s Palestinian neighborhoods, which precludes the issuance of building permits, residents are often forced to build without permits, subjecting their homes to the risk of demolition. In addition to this discriminatory policy, the sharp rise in demolitions last year was due to the implementation of new mechanisms to increase punitive actions against unpermitted building.
Ir Amim’s latest analysis paper, The Stark Rise in Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem 2019, analyzes the increase in demolitions across East Jerusalem over the past year and describes the measures in place, which disproportionately affect the Palestinian population of the city and likewise contributed to the surge in such a phenomenon in 2019. 
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