Press release

Forced eviction of Palestinian citizens and demolition of their houses in occupied Jerusalem is growing Israeli policy

Israeli authorities have demolished at least 114 Palestinian houses in occupied Jerusalem since the beginning of this year. However, those authorities have no demolished a single Jewish house nor evicted any Jewish family under the pretext of lacking a license.

According to LRC's fieldwork, the occupation authorities demolished the 114 houses during the period 1 January to 26 November 2005. The total area of the demolished houses and housing units is 11,026 square meters. The demolitions made more than 467 people homeless. No demolitions took place during the month of October; however, the Israeli occupation authorities dedicated that month to monitoring, raiding and fining campaigns, as well as issuing more eviction and demolition notices to Palestinian inhabitants. By the end of October, the Israeli planning authorities in Jerusalem issued an additional 170 house-demolition notices against Palestinian houses in the city.

The following table demonstrates the demolitions of Palestinian housing units by month through 2005:

Month	Residences demolished	Homeless inhabitants
January	8	27
February	29	98
March	7	24
April	22	76
May	3	11
June	15	52
July	10	35
August	2	14
September	5	50
October	0	0
November	13	80
Total	114	467

The aforementioned data do not include the other Palestinian structures in Jerusalem, such as cisterns, stores, walls and animal sheds that Israeli authorities demolished in 2005, whose total built areas are estimated at thousands of square meters.

On this occasion, LRC would like to remind the whole world of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 on “Partition of Palestine with Economic Union,” which state delegations adopted by a vote of 33 votes in favor, 13 votes against, with 10 abstentions on this day in 1947. The destruction of Palestine that followed that UN action remains ongoing. LRC urges the world community and all international human rights bodies and governments to assume their responsibilities and pressure Israeli to stop its illegal occupation of the occupied territories and respect Palestinian human rights, including the right to self-determination in an independent and sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital in compliance with the international legitimacy.

Notice: At the end of 2005, LRC will issue its detailed annual report on house demolition in Jerusalem.

For more information, please contact Mr. Yacoub Odeh, LRC's human and housing rights supervisor in Jerusalem: Tel: +972 (0)522 872–840