Oppose Israeli Theft of Arab Properties in Jerusalem

[العربية, Español, Français]

This is a petition written by Palestinians in Palestine who are alarmed at the current aggression by the Zionist entity against their properties in Jerusalem.  This is a blatant effort to drive the Palestinians from the Holy City of Jerusalem, which is and has been their capital for millennia. Israel is confiscating Palestinian properties in Jerusalem under a new law described below, while the residents are under attack by settlers eager to take over their homes and IDF enforcers.  The details are in the petition itself.

The petition is sponsored by: The International Campaign to Defend Jerusalem, Palestinian Human Rights and International Law organizations, along with leading Arab Human Rights organizations.  See the full list below.

This petition will go to:   the UN Secretary General, UNSC, UNHRC, EU Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and media networks.

We, the undersigned individuals, express our grave concern and condemnation of Israel’s continued attempts to entrench its illegal annexation of occupied Jerusalem through the implementation of its land title settlement and registration plan. This results from Israel’s overarching discriminatory apartheid regime and impunity for its crimes and violations of international law, including the appropriation of their land and properties, forcible displacement and dispossession, and denial of the Palestinian inalienable rights of return, property reclamation, and self-determination, with the ultimate aim to alter the demographic character of the city in favor of a Jewish majority.

Since 1948, Israel has been repeatedly violating the protected status of Jerusalem under international law, as well as the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, with Jerusalem as their capital. Recently, Israel has accelerated its efforts to establish further control and domination over Jerusalem through arbitrary and discriminatory urban planning policies, administrative decisions, and laws. Such measures include the enactment of a land title settlement and registration plan applicable to lands in the eastern parts of Jerusalem.

Specifically, on 19 March 2018, the Director of Land Registration at Israel’s Ministry of Justice announced the opening of mandatory registration of lands for the occupied eastern parts of Jerusalem, including in the neighborhoods of Beit-Hanina, Sour Baher, Sheikh Jarrah, Hizma, Shuafat, and al-Souwneh (Mount of Olives). In its resolution 3790 of 13 May 2018, titled “Reducing Socioeconomic Disparities and Promoting Economic Development in East Jerusalem”, the Israeli government approved a five-year budget of USD $650 million to strengthen its sovereignty in occupied Jerusalem, of which approximately USD $15 million is allocated specifically for land title settlement and registration. The office of the Minister of Justice explained that this is “the first practical application of sovereignty since the state of Israel’s decisions to extend its sovereignty to East Jerusalem following the liberation of the holy city in 1967,” which violates international law, including the prohibition on annexation in all forms, and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over Jerusalem.

In order to accomplish such registration, Palestinian owners are required to be physically present in Jerusalem. Against this backdrop, Israel has been actively preventing Palestinians from returning to the city to protect their ownership to their land and properties through the employment of several laws, such as Israel’s ‘Law of Return’ (1950), the Absentee Property Law (1950), and Nationality Law (1952), coupled with the coercive environment Israel has created to drive Palestinians out of Jerusalem. As a result, millions of Palestinian refugees forced from Palestine since 1948 are denied their right of return and have been treated as ‘absent owners’ by Israel. Additionally, many Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have suffered residency revocations when they fail to prove that Jerusalem is their ‘center of life’ or based on the so-called ‘breach of allegiance’ to Israel.

Standing together in protection of Palestinian people’s rights, we call for collaborative, immediate and effective international intervention to stop Israel from carrying out its land title settlement and registration plan in annexed Jerusalem which will result in the permanent appropriation of Palestinian land by Israel. The implementation of this plan will force Palestinians to attempt to prove ownership of their properties, which is procedurally and financially burdensome. Even if they succeed, they will be required to pay ludicrous amounts of property taxes from 1967 until this day, which most Palestinian residents of Jerusalem cannot afford, leading ultimately to the forcible transfer of the occupied population.

Jerusalem has been controlled and illegally annexed by Israel in 1949, including its eastern part (‘East Jerusalem’) in 1967, since then recognized broadly as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where international humanitarian and human rights law are applicable. Under international humanitarian law [The Hague Convention and Regulations (1907) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949)], the occupying power may only requisition or confiscate private property temporarily for the necessities of the army. Any transfer of confiscated private immovable property to the permanent ownership of the occupant, or their use for the benefit of its own civilian population and economy, is absolutely prohibited.

A coercive environment has been imposed on Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, who face difficult living conditions, and limitations on their rights to freedom of movement and return, adequate housing, residency, family reunion, and education on a daily basis. This harsh reality is the result of Israel’s policies aiming at forceful displacement and dispossession, with an intention to alter the demographic character of the city through engineering a Jewish demographic majority in the city whilst minimizing and curtailing the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

Israel’s land title settlement and registration plan is part and parcel of its overarching legal framework and policies aiming at population transfer and permanent annexation of Jerusalem.
The international community has repeatedly declared Israel’s annexation of the eastern parts of Jerusalem to be null and void. In a resolution adopted on 21 December 2017, the UN General Assembly also opposed the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

THEREFORE, we join the call of the civil society organizations, including human rights and international law organizations and religious associations, to the international community to provide a protective response by:

● Recognizing and declaring that the laws and policies Israel has created, and continues to maintain, form part of its institutionalized regime of racial domination and oppression over the Palestinian people as a whole, which amounts to the crime of apartheid;

● Intervening immediately to stop Israel from carrying out the announced land title settlement and registration plan in occupied Jerusalem which will result in further permanent appropriation of Palestinian land by Israel and the forcible transfer of the occupied Palestinian population in flagrant violation of international law, and that if carried out, all its findings are invalid as an internationally wrongful act and all its conclusions are null and void;

● Calling on Israel to immediately repeal all laws it has enacted to further its policy of population transfer and establish and maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem in violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights, including their right to self-determination and right to return and reclaim their properties, including the Absentee Property Law (1950);

● Stopping Israel from the implementation of its domestic law to the occupied and illegally annexed Jerusalem, including the Absentee Property Law (1950) and all other relevant laws, including its Residency Law (1952);

● Holding Israel accountable for its violations of international law for its land title settlement and registration plan, in particular the appropriation of Palestinian properties under the illegal ‘absentee’ law and other laws which result in the deprivation of Palestinians inalienable rights, including through supporting a full, thorough, and comprehensive investigation into the Situation in Palestine by the International Criminal Court;

● Calling on the UN Member States to ensure that all of its previous resolutions regarding Jerusalem and the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and to the restitution of their properties, are respected and fulfilled, and on Israel to respect and implement such resolutions;

● Calling on the UN Member States to assume their international obligations to cooperate to bring to an end Israel’s annexation, apartheid regime and settler colonial enterprise, and to give no recognition or assistance, by adopting effective measures, including sanctions, for this purpose.

Organizational Signatories: International Campaign to Defend Jerusalem- West Bank, Occupied Jerusalem, Al-Haq-Palestine, Human Rights and Democracy Media Centre – Palestine, Free Palestine Movement-USA, One State Assembly- USA, The Yemeni Center for Human Rights- Yemen, United National Antiwar Coalition, Black Alliance for Peace… More Organizational Signatures – English