Union for Justice: Acceleration in the Demolition of Palestinian Structures in Jerusalem
September 22, 2025 — Union for Justice Foundation
The Union for Justice Foundation stated that since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have intensified the demolition of Palestinian structures in and around the Jerusalem governorate, as part of an ongoing “demographic war” aimed at reducing the Palestinian presence and maintaining a Jewish majority in the city.
According to the Union for Justice Foundation, more than 670 homes and commercial, economic, and agricultural structures—some inhabited for over 35 years and others still under construction—have been demolished under the pretext of lacking building permits. These demolitions have led to the displacement of dozens of Palestinian families and deprived many others of their livelihoods.
Data collected and documented by the foundation indicate that in just the past three months (July, August, and September), the occupation forces demolished over 22 houses, 4 multi-story buildings, and dozens of residential, agricultural, commercial, and livestock caravans, along with tin houses, water tanks, and fences.
The Israeli demolition operations in Jerusalem have been concentrated in areas such as Beit Hanina, Issawiya, Al-Eizariya, Anata, Rafat, Qalandiya, Shuafat Refugee Camp, Qatanna, Jaba’, Al-Jdeideh, Jabal al-Mukabber, Sur Baher, Silwan, and the Old City.
According to Union for Justice, the occupation authorities force Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents to demolish their own homes under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Those who refuse are punished by having Israeli bulldozers carry out the demolition, after which the owners are fined exorbitant costs.
The Jerusalem Municipality systematically refuses to grant building permits to Palestinians, in violation of international law and humanitarian principles that guarantee the right to housing. This policy forms part of the occupation’s systematic efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians from Jerusalem, while expanding Israeli settlements in and around the city.
Official statistics show that Israeli approval of Palestinian building permit requests does not exceed 2%, and Palestinians are permitted to build on no more than 13% of the area of occupied East Jerusalem.
Judaization of the Holy City and the Displacement of Palestinians
The “Union for Justice Foundation” believes that the demolition operations cannot be separated from the broader Israeli policy aimed at Judaizing the Holy City and emptying it of its Palestinian residents, at a time when Israeli settlement expansion and efforts to annex the West Bank and impose Israeli sovereignty over it are accelerating.
The foundation affirms that the demolition of Palestinian homes, accompanied by the displacement of their residents, amounts to war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment and the unlawful destruction of property belonging to populations under occupation. The Union for Justice Foundation monitored the following most prominent demolition operations carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities during the last three months:
* July 1, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished the home of citizen Tayseer Abu Najmeh in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, displacing his family of five.
* July 1, 2025: Occupation authorities forced the Burqan family to demolish their home in Wadi Yasul neighborhood in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The 100-square-meter house, inhabited by seven people, had stood for five years.
* July 3, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished several residential and agricultural caravans in the Rawabi al-Issawiya area northeast of occupied Jerusalem.
* July 7, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished two tin houses belonging to brothers Yahya and Younis Abu Ghalia, destroyed more than 50 water tanks, and bulldozed large agricultural areas in the Al-Mushtal area east of Al-Eizariya, east of occupied Jerusalem.
* July 8, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished an under-construction building in Dahiat al-Salam in Anata, northeast of Jerusalem, consisting of 15 commercial shops and 8 residential apartments belonging to Mohammad Hamzeh Ghaith and Yassin Ibrahim Abu Shamsiyeh.
* July 9, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished the house of Tariq Shweiki in the Thuri neighborhood in Silwan and another house belonging to the Burqan family in Wadi Yasul, as well as surrounding fences.
July 14, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Maher Salaymeh to self-demolish his home in Wadi Qaddum, Silwan. The house, consisting of two apartments housing seven individuals, had stood for over 35 years and measured 140 m².
* July 22, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Subhiya Shaqirat to demolish her 55 m² home in Jabal al-Mukabber, southeast of Jerusalem, under the pretext of building without a permit. The house, built 12 years ago, housed a family of five.
* July 24, 2025: Occupation authorities forced brothers Ayyoub and Ibrahim Qanbar to self-demolish their homes in Jabal al-Mukabber, displacing ten people living in the two apartments totaling 140 m².
* July 27, 2025: Occupation authorities forced the Halawani family in the Al-Farouq area of Jabal al-Mukaber to demolish their six-apartment building, displacing about 30 individuals, including children.
* July 28, 2025: Yousef Qara’in from Jabal al-Mukaber was forced to self-demolish his 70 m² home, built 12 years ago, where he lived with his wife and daughter.
* July 29, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a residential facility and a car wash belonging to Hani Salaymeh in Ain al-Louza, Silwan, and destroyed a wall surrounding the house of Tamer Odeh in Al-Bustan, weeks after his home had been demolished.
* August 1, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Adham Bassam Awisat to demolish his home in Jabal al-Mukaber for lack of a permit. The 50 m² house had been built in 2019.
* August 4, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a two-story house, a wooden hut, a garden, and walls in Rafat northwest of Jerusalem, claiming unlicensed construction in Area C.
* August 4, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished four structures—a two-story house, a park, a hut, and walls—in Al-Judeira, north of Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
* August 5, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Jamal Amjad Jamal Amira from Sur Baher to demolish his home, claiming it lacked a permit.
* August 6, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished the 135 m² home of Falah Burqan in Wadi Qaddum, Silwan, displacing eight residents.
* August 7, 2025: Occupation authorities forced brothers Iyad and Ammar Khaled Qara’in to demolish their homes in Wadi Hilweh, Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
* August 8, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Alaa Hamza Ibrahim Amira to self-demolish his home in Sur Baher, displacing 16 people.
* August 12, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Mohammad Khaled Qara’in to demolish his home in Wadi Hilweh, Silwan. Days earlier, his two brothers had been forced to demolish their homes on the same plot.
* August 13, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a shack and fence belonging to Imran Rabah Subh in Qalandiya, northwest of Jerusalem.
* August 13, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a 16 m² chicken coop belonging to Ezz Burqan in Silwan.
* August 21, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a horse stable in Wadi Qaddum, Silwan.
* August 25, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished several barns and agricultural canopies in Sur Baher.
* August 26, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a room, leveled agricultural land, uprooted olive trees, destroyed water tanks, and tore down an iron fence and gate surrounding the land of Nasser Nour al-Din Ubaid in Al-Issawiya, northeast of Jerusalem.
* August 28, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Mohammad Odeh to self-demolish his home in Al-Issawiya, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
* September 2, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished the home of Mu’ath Salameh and leveled a park in Wa’ar al-Beik, Anata, northeast of Jerusalem.
* September 5, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Abdullah Hawas to demolish two apartments housing seven people in a residential building in Shuafat Refugee Camp, claiming lack of permit.
* September 8, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Ahmad Amira and his sons Musab, Moath, and Mahmoud to self-demolish their homes in Sur Baher. The four homes had housed 12 family members, including children.
* September 10, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished a fence in Qatna, northwest of Jerusalem.
* September 11, 2025: Occupation authorities forced Ablah Al-Aljawi’s family to demolish their home near Bab Hitta in Jerusalem’s Old City, claiming unlicensed building, after the family refused to open it for settlers’ passage toward Al-Aqsa Mosque walls.
* September 16, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished walls and tin sheets in Bir Ayyub neighborhood in Silwan.
* September 17, 2025: Israeli bulldozers demolished sheep pens and agricultural structures in the Al-Ara’ara community in Jaba’, northeast of Jerusalem.
