The Institute for Public Policies (IPP) has issued recently the 7th edition of the performance report “Housing in Jerusalem” 

Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing tremendous challenges concerning their existence in the city. Israeli government institutions are operating within an ongoing process of marginalizing the Palestinian population in the city. Israeli measures vary between land confiscations, constructions of new settlements while expanding existing ones, numerous checkpoints, separation barrier, as well as confining Palestinian population into small, overcrowded and impoverished enclaves. Above all, applying insurmountable socio-economic obstacles, leads to a dramatic decrease of Palestinians within the Israeli defined city limits.

 In spite of the fact that the Palestinian population amounts to over 34% of the total population in the so-called “united Jerusalem”, the Israeli government still considers them as a “problem”. This is clearly reflected in the Municipality’s policy towards Palestinian residents. Instead of dealing with the deteriorating living conditions endured by its Palestinian residents, the Israeli government is exercising discriminatory means to rid the city of its Palestinian residents altogether. Numerous studies, reports and articles have already been and continue to be published on the subject. Yet, Israel continues to pursue its harsh, systematic and above all, illegal campaign. The reality is inescapable, as Israel’s vision of “Jerusalem 2020” (the master plan) clearly shows. The project is a further case portraying Israel’s intention to decrease the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem on the one hand, while at the same time, raising the number of Jews in the city (East and West).

 One of the most common policies exercised by the Israeli authorities is the enforcement of its so-called “planning and zoning” laws. Since the 1967 de-facto annexation of East-Jerusalem and the following illegal de-jure annexation in 1980, Israel continuously expands its “Jerusalem vision”, insufficient and regardless of Palestinian needs. The main aspect of the “planning and zoning”-policies is clearly aimed to accommodate more and more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, thereby squeezing Palestinian natural expansion in the city. The effect of these polices are clearly visible, the number of Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem rose from zero in June 1967 to ca 200,000 in 2009. Such large figures would not have been possible without administering large-scale land confiscations and demolitions, as well as exercising social and economic marginalization, thereby forcing Palestinians out of the city.