Overview
- Special Procedures experts said Israeli measures are altering Jerusalem’s demographic, religious and legal landscape, describing an accelerating process of de‑Palestinisation they called irreversible.
- Between 2021 and 2025, the experts recorded 144 Palestinian deaths in the Jerusalem Governorate, at least 11,555 arrests, 2,386 deportation decisions and more than 1,732 demolitions or land‑levelling operations, with checkpoints and closures isolating Palestinian communities.
- The statement cited 73,871 settler incursions into the Al‑Aqsa Mosque compound in 2025 and reported sweeping limits on Palestinian worship, especially during Ramadan, alongside punitive policing meant to pressure residents to leave.
- The experts said Israeli laws bar Palestinians from reclaiming properties lost in 1947–49 while enabling Jewish Israelis to do so, underpinning evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and they noted 33 Bedouin communities with over 7,000 people being pushed toward displacement.
- They warned that confiscation of property and forcible transfer may constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and possibly war crimes, and urged states to withhold recognition or assistance to the occupation, citing the ICJ advisory opinion that deemed it unlawful.