Under the cover of genocide, Israel is accelerating the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem
People standing on a fence look at heavy machinery demolishing a structure inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on January 20, 2026. PHOTO: AFP
Irreparable harm is being inflicted on Jerusalem, as violence engulfs the region, and genocide against the Palestinians continues in Gaza and spills into the West Bank, UN experts warned on Friday.
In a statement, the experts said, “Under the cover of an existential war against the Palestinians, Israel is accelerating measures that alter Jerusalem’s demographic composition, religious character and legal status, destroying the remnants of the pluralistic fabric that Jerusalem has represented for centuries, for Muslims, Christians and Jews.”
“What is being done to this world symbol of spiritual coexistence and shared heritage is irreversible.”
In occupied East Jerusalem, extrajudicial killings, large-scale demolitions and forced displacement have rapidly increased. Checkpoints and closures have also intensified, severing the city from surrounding Palestinian areas, isolating communities from their social, cultural, economic and religious life while undermining their rights to self-determination and development.
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They added that punitive policing and systematic interference with freedom of worship were being used to pressure Palestinians to leave the city. “These are not security measures,” the experts said. “They are components of a systematic project of demographic engineering and domination to entrench exclusive Jewish control.”
According to the statement, between 2021 and 2025, 144 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Jerusalem’s Governorate and at least 11,555 were arrested, with reports of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment. Authorities issued 2,386 deportation decisions and carried out more than 1,732 demolitions and land-levelling operations, coercing residents to demolish their own homes under threat of heavy fines or imprisonment.
33 Bedouin communities, home to more than 7,000 Palestinians, are also being pushed towards displacement through repeated demolitions and land seizures, the statement said. The experts said that limited access to natural resources had stripped many of their ability to sustain themselves, forcing some families to leave.
Israel’s discriminatory legislation drives this process, as they have barred Palestinians from reclaiming properties lost in 1947–49 and enabled Israeli Jews to do so, advancing unlawful expropriation measures underpinning ongoing evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
The experts said international humanitarian law and human rights law unequivocally prohibit the confiscation of private property and the forcible transfer of a protected population. “Such acts constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and may amount to war crimes. Yet decades of invoking this legal framework have failed to halt the violations – impunity granted to Israel has become an enabler.”
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They also warned that children’s access to education had deteriorated following legislation affecting the work of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The statement said the agency’s premises had been violated, including in East Jerusalem.
Frequent militarised incursions, coupled with expanding settler presence, have resulted in harassment, arrests and sweeping restrictions on Palestinian access to holy sites. 73,871 settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were reported in 2025 alone, and more recently, Israel closed Al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayers, according to Al-Jazeera.
“Especially during Ramazan, access limitations have gravely curtailed Palestinians’ ability to participate in religious life.”
“These acts must be understood in their totality: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, by whatever means, whatever the cost and whatever crimes it takes. This environment is coercing Palestinians to leave their homes and life in a city where their roots run deep,” the experts warned.
Christian communities have also faced assaults and restrictions, particularly during religious observances, according to the statement.
The experts urged immediate international action, especially in the wake of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, which declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful, and called upon the international community to refrain from recognising or aiding the occupation and to act collectively to end it.
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“What is unfolding mirrors colonial enterprises of past centuries, carried out in real time, undermining a fully developed international legal system,” they said.
“What is erased now – the richness of Jerusalem’s communities, heritage and rights – will not be restored. Inaction is not neutrality; it is complicity.”
