The al-Maqdese Society for Development concluded, recently, a comprehensive report on Israeli violations in occupied East Jerusalem, and revealed that since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli authorities have demolished, and issued orders to demolish, 1,485 Palestinian homes in the city. The report was prepared by 12 researchers and eight volunteers from different universities in the West Bank.
It revealed that Israel issued 1,322 demolish orders targeting Palestinian homes in Jerusalem in 2009 and 2010. The society said that should these orders be implemented, at least 3,655 persons, including 1,699 children, will be rendered homeless.
The documentation process took five months of intensive research and study that included using the Archive of the al-Quds (Jerusalem) newspaper, contacting different social, civil and human rights organizations, and collecting testimonies from Palestinians who lost their homes after Israel demolished them, and those who have homes that are slated to be demolished.
The first phase of the documentation process was conducted by monitoring the Israeli violations, collecting official reports and contacting victims and officials, while the second phase was analyzing and verifying the information before storing the data on a special system to analyze it and issue detailed and comprehensive reports.
The society stated that the Israeli violations also targeted holy sites, especially Muslim and Christian archeological sites, and ongoing Israeli settlement activities and plans to construct more settlements in the occupied city.
The Center intends to publish the detailed report to include all collected data and testimonies regarding Israel’s illegal violations against the residents, their property and the holy sites in the city.
It said that Israel’s practices violate international law and all international treaties regarding protecting civilians living under occupation.
The center stated that it currently has a detailed and a comprehensive database on Israel’s violations against the Palestinians in Jerusalem since 1967.
The database includes detailed and analytical reports on every area and neighborhood in the occupied city.
