Israel accelerates planning to occupy Sheikh Jarrah

LONDON (MNTV) — Israel is escalating a far-reaching legal and urban planning campaign in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, with new reports warning that combined state, municipal, and settler-driven initiatives aim to reshape the area’s demographic and political landscape.

According to an in-depth Arab News investigation drawing on Ir Amim’s documentation and resident testimonies, Israel’s latest measures mark a significant escalation in Sheikh Jarrah.

Analysts say the developments signal a “new and dangerous phase” aimed at cementing control over one of East Jerusalem’s most emblematic Palestinian neighborhoods.

The report highlights two major state-backed development schemes presented as “urban renewal” projects that would introduce roughly 2,000 Israeli housing units into Sheikh Jarrah.

If implemented, these plans would remove the entirety of the Palestinian population from the western section of the neighborhood, known locally as Umm Haroun, and significantly expand settlement infrastructure in the area.

Ir Amim’s documentation indicates that the initiatives build on longstanding legal proceedings, land registration efforts, settler acquisitions, and municipal zoning plans that have shaped the neighborhood’s trajectory for decades.

Together, they signal a shift from earlier settler-led property claims to what researchers describe as direct state management of demographic engineering in East Jerusalem.

Residents say the policies reinforce a long pattern of pressure. Mahmoud Al-Saou, a community representative from Umm Haroun, told the news channel that his legal battle against demolition and eviction began in 2005.

Authorities, he said, sought to replace his home — occupied by his family since 1963 — with a multi-story building. “We go to Israeli courts only because we have no other option,” he said. “The system doesn’t give us justice. We simply try to buy time.”

According to Al-Saou, settler organizations have already seized several adjacent plots, converting them into parking areas to bolster future ownership claims.

He also described the eviction of two Palestinian families: the Shamasneh family, removed in 2017 after an eight-year legal dispute over pre-1948 property claims, and the household of Hajj Abu Khalil and Hajjah Umm Khalil, whose home was transferred to settlers after the couple’s death and the absence of legal heirs.

These displacements laid the groundwork for a major zoning plan submitted in late 2024 by the Jerusalem Development Authority.

Plan to demolish 40 Palestinian homes

The proposal would demolish approximately 40 Palestinian homes in Umm Haroun and replace them with 316 housing units described as part of the renewal of the historical Jewish neighborhood of Nahalat Shimon.

Rights groups argue that presenting the plan as urban upgrading allows authorities to bypass protected tenancy rights previously held by many Palestinian families.

The pressure is no less intense in the eastern section of Sheikh Jarrah, Karm Al-Jaouni, where families such as the Hanouns, Al-Kurds, and Al-Ghaouis have already been removed.

Rights organizations note that land registration efforts, use of the General Custodian to claim alleged pre-1948 Jewish property, seizure of public land for Jewish institutions, and targeted zoning plans have increased the vulnerability of families still in litigation.

Ir Amim and the planning rights group Bimkom argue that Israel’s land regulation mechanisms — especially the Settlement of Land Title procedures — are systematically disadvantaging Palestinians.

Bimkom’s September study concluded that the legal framework supports de facto annexation by enabling rapid transfer of land to state or settler control while erecting steep administrative hurdles for Palestinian ownership claims.

Municipal development projects surrounding Sheikh Jarrah have contributed to concerns. The Wadi Joz business complex, and a proposed municipal park near Sheikh Jarrah, are portrayed by city officials as initiatives to improve service delivery.

Ir Amim counters that they consolidate Israeli authority around the Old City Basin, linking settlement hubs and shrinking Palestinian territorial continuity.

The report warns that this network of actions serves a broader strategy of demographic restructuring designed to create an expanded Israeli enclave in Sheikh Jarrah, undermining Palestinian presence at the core of East Jerusalem.

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with Ir Amim, said that all current projects are state-directed. “The pretense that these were private settler initiatives is gone,” he said. “Today the state is openly driving these plans, allocating land, and supporting development that displaces Palestinians.”

This acceleration, Tatarsky added, depends in part on a permissive political climate. “There is very little opposition within Israeli society,” he said. “Some actively support these moves; others are indifferent. Without that silence, none of this would be possible.”

He stressed that international monitoring has not translated into substantive pressure. “What we see is documentation and condemnation, but no effective action,” he said. “This allows Israel to continue with the destruction in Gaza, rising radical nationalism in the West Bank, and displacement in East Jerusalem.”

Laws prejudiced against Palestinians

The legal foundation for Sheikh Jarrah’s disputes dates back decades. The 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law grants Jews exclusive rights to reclaim pre-1948 properties, while Palestinians displaced in 1948 — including many Sheikh Jarrah families resettled through a Jordan-UNRWA program in the 1950s — have no reciprocal rights.

Israel’s 1950 Absentee Property Law and 1972 Tenant Protection Law further facilitated transfer of Palestinian properties to state or settler control.

Nearly 80 Palestinian families have faced eviction lawsuits since 1970, according to Ir Amim. The tension surged in 2021 when the Israeli Supreme Court considered eviction appeals from seven families in Karm Al-Jaouni.

The court suggested designating them as protected tenants if they acknowledged Jewish ownership and paid rent — a proposal the families rejected, citing legally binding mid-century agreements with Jordan and UNRWA.

Jordanian civil law Article 395 and documentation by the Institute for Palestine Studies support Palestinian ownership claims, but Israeli courts have consistently prioritized pre-1948 Jewish property assertions.

International bodies have repeatedly declared the evictions unlawful. The UN and EU consider Israel’s actions in Sheikh Jarrah violations of international humanitarian law, specifically Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forced population transfers in occupied territories.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled Israel’s occupation illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Despite these findings, Israel maintains that disputes in Sheikh Jarrah are private legal matters adjudicated through its courts.

The developing situation unfolds against a backdrop of intensifying violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas conflict escalated on Oct. 7, 2023.

According to UN data, more than 1,000 Palestinians — including a significant number of children — have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since then, accounting for 43 percent of all Palestinian fatalities in the territory over the past 20 years. During the same period, Israeli casualties from Palestinian attacks reached 59.

The UN Human Rights Office cites disproportionate and unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces, including live ammunition, airstrikes, and shoulder-launched missiles, as key drivers of the toll.

UNRWA reports that more than 38,450 Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced, with home demolitions linked to military operations and settlement expansion. Roughly three-quarters of these displacements occurred during major raids in the northern West Bank.

Despite the scale of the crisis, some residents of Sheikh Jarrah remain determined to stay. “We are holding on with everything we have,” Al-Saou said. “These policies were designed to empty the neighborhood, but we will not give up our homes. God willing, things will change.”