GENEVA (6 March 2026) – Irreparable harm is being
inflicted on Jerusalem, as violence engulfs the region, and
genocide continues in Gaza and spills into the West Bank, UN
experts* warned today.
“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, ” the experts said.
“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 escalated. Checkpoints and
closures are severing the city from its Palestinian
hinterland, isolating communities from their social,
cultural, economic and religious life and undermining their
rights to self-determination and development. Punitive
policing and systematic interference with freedom of worship
are designed to coerce Palestinians to leave.
“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.”
The scale is stark. Between 2021 and 2025,
144 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Jerusalem’s
Governorate. At least 11,555 were arrested, amid allegations
of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment. Authorities issued
2,386 deportation decisions and carried out more than 1,732
demolitions and land-levelling operations, often coercing
residents to demolish their own homes under threat of heavy
fines or imprisonment. Thirty-three Bedouin communities,
home to more than 7,000 Palestinians, are being pushed
toward displacement through repeated demolitions and land
seizures. The deprivation of access to natural resources
have stripped away their subsistence, forcing many to
leave.
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Israel’s discriminatory legislation drives
this process: barring Palestinians from reclaiming
properties lost in 1947–49 while enabling Israeli Jews to
do so, and advancing unlawful expropriation measures
underpinning ongoing evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and
Silwan.
The experts said international humanitarian
law and human rights law unequivocally prohibit 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.”
Children’s access to education has
deteriorated following legislation obstructing the work of
UNRWA and violation of its premises, 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. Christian
communities have faced assaults and restrictions,
particularly during religious
observances.
“Especially during Ramadan, 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.
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 on all States to
refrain from recognising or aiding the occupation and to act
collectively to end it.
“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,” the experts warned.
*The
experts:
- Francesca Albanese, Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories occupied since
1967 - Ben Saul, Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms while countering
terrorism - Ashwini K.P., Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance - Gina Romero, Special
Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and
of association - George Katrougalos, Independent
Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable
international order - Tlaleng Mofokeng,
UN
Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment
of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health - Michael Fakhri, Special
Rapporteur on the right to food - Surya
Deva, the
Special Rapporteur on the right to
development
