The Judaization of Jerusalem: A review of Israel’s escalating campaign of land seizures, house demolitions and eviction of Palestinians

By
Samira Quraishy
Analyst, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Summary Points:

• Since its illegal annexation in 1967, East Jerusalem has been submerged in administrative, legal and bureaucratic milieu of laws to change its physical, cultural and spiritual character through a process of Judaization.
  
  
• The unrestricted expansion and funding of settlements, dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property and the Separation Wall surrounding the city has changed the demographics of city from a Palestinian to Jewish majority.
  
  
• The prominence given to Jewish settler organisations threaten the physical and demographic landscape of Jerusalem.
  
  
• The religious and cultural character of the city, including areas of worship are under imminent threat of destruction through excavation and sabotage.
  
  
• Israel’s policy of conquest by architectural means and the establishment of ‘facts on the ground’ should not be used as an excuse not to return the land and property to their rightful owners.