January - December 2022
Throughout 2022, Israeli authorities maintained their arbitrary policies toward Palestinians in East Jerusalem, seizing Palestinian homes, facilities, and lands.
Israeli security and military services furthered their violent practices against Palestinians in the city, through targeting, killing, arbitrary detention, storming neighbourhoods, and property confiscation. Within the same year, Israeli settlers intensified their incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and organised religious activities that provoked Muslims.
Israeli authorities proposed additional settlement projects and maintained a policy of persecuting and criminalising the official Palestinian presence in the city, as well as deportations and forced expulsions.
3,504
Total arrest and detention cases in 2022
19
Total killing cases in 2022
22,000
Settlements the Israeli government submitted plans to build or approved in 2022
306
Demolitions of residential homes and structures in Jerusalem in 2022
Arbitrary detention
The Israeli authorities arrest Palestinians in East Jerusalem on a daily basis. In 2022, Israel arrested 3,504 Palestinians. These arrests are mostly arbitrary or lack fair trials, legal procedures, or standards, and are often accompanied by raids of homes. Warrants are rarely shown during these raids, which is contrary to procedural rules in criminal laws.
Israel weaponises arrests to intimidate Jerusalemites
The Israeli forces, accompanied by intelligence and police units, carry out continuous raids on Palestinian neighbourhoods and homes in East Jerusalem. These usually take place at night or dawn, almost daily to arrest Jerusalemites.
These arrest campaigns do not differentiate between a young man, a woman, a child, or an elderly, nor do they differentiate between an ordinary person, a leader, or a religious symbol. Detention campaigns were concentrated in April of this year, which coincides with the start of the Holy Month of Ramadan. April saw 894 detentions, which set a record number of Palestinians detained, and 476 of which occurred on 15 April alone. These 476 Palestinians, who were in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, were detained and harassed by Israeli forces.
The detentions covered the majority of the Palestinian neighbourhoods in Jerusalem, including Isawiya, Sheikh Jarrah, the Old City, Silwan, and others, this is similar every year. During 2022, Israeli forces conducted approximately 946 raids and incursions into Jerusalem's towns and neighbourhoods, detaining 3,504 people, including over 600 minors.
Excessive use of force
Although Israeli forces claim that they do not target civilians in the Palestinian Territory, their actions on the ground contradict these claims. In almost every case, they use excessive force against Palestinians, which results in permanent disabilities and deaths.
Israeli forces routinely use extreme force against Palestinians in Jerusalem during raids, detentions, or protest suppression. Such force will see the use of live ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas, stun grenades, and other tools of repression.
In addition to the killing of 19 Palestinians, Israel's excessive use of force policy in Jerusalem in 2022 resulted in the injury of over 2,480 Palestinians with live and rubber bullets, as well as acts of abuse and beatings with fists, batons, and rifle butts.
Attack on Palestinians and Journalists in Jerusalem | May 2021
A video showing the Israeli security forces’ assault on Palestinian journalists and protesters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where Palestinians disobeyed in May 2021 against the decision to evacuate their homes.
The policy of home and shop demolitions
The Israeli occupation authorities exercise a harsh and arbitrary policy against Palestinian houses and other establishments in Jerusalem City; they seek to expel the Palestinians by denying them building permits and demolishing their homes and shops. Field documentation showed that the Israeli authorities demolished 128 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem in 2022.
Town of Jabal Al Mukaber
On Friday, 14 January 2022, Israeli bulldozers demolished the home of Palestinian resident Atta Jaafra in the town of Jabal Mukaber, citing illegal construction and the lack of a license. Jaafra had tried to obtain a license, but the Israeli authorities refused to grant him one. He had previously refused to demolish his home, so an Israeli bulldozer demolished it, displacing his family of 11 members.
Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood
On Wednesday, 19 January 2022, Israeli bulldozers demolished Palestinian Mahmoud Salhia's home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood under the guise of carrying out an order to demolish "illegal buildings." During the demolition, Israeli forces assaulted the Salhia family and detained the homeowner, as well as 26 others, including those standing in solidarity with the family.
Silwan town
On Saturday, 3 September 2022, Israeli authorities forced the Hadia family to demolish their house in the town of Silwan, east of Jerusalem, due to a lack of a building permit., This occurred despite the family trying for 10 years to license the land and the building.
A 50,000 Shekel fine (approximately 14,000 UDS) was paid by the family, but the Israeli municipality refused to freeze or postpone the demolition decision. The house was built on 120 square metres and was home to three families.
Expulsion from Al Aqsa Mosque
Israeli security forces issue orders to expel Palestinian worshipers from Al-Aqsa Mosque in five different ways, as follows:
Colonisation and Israelisation of the Holy City
The Israeli occupation invests its governmental, security and judicial arms to impose a demographic change in the occupied city of Jerusalem by allowing settlers and their settlement groups to take control of the largest number of Palestinian properties in Jerusalem and creating a new Israeli character for the city. The Israeli authorities also expel Palestinians from the city as part of such an endeavor. One of the most dangerous measures taken by the occupation in this regard is taking advantage of the Israeli judicial system to issue orders regarding settlements and changing the original character of the city by giving a false legal appearance to their actions, manipulation of laws and provisions, and racial discrimination against Palestinians.
Mount of Olives Information Centre
In February 2022, Israeli authorities decided to build a centre on the Mount of Olives that includes a hall to display biblical and Talmudic narratives about Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives region. In addition to this centre, a centre for cemetery research and Jewish historical research was similarly built.
The centre will provide information services and content about the Mount of Olives to both foreign tourists and Israeli visitors. It is to be built on previously seized land belonging to the Administration Department of Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs/Jerusalem.
The Israelisation of streets and dividing the city
Under the guise of development, Israeli authorities began implementing a plan in June 2022 that cuts off the eastern part of the city and aims to cut off transportation between Palestinian streets. The project includes the installation of new Hebrew-language signs in the targeted streets to eliminate the Arab and Islamic presence.
Restricting freedoms and fighting the official Palestinian presence
In 2022, Israeli authorities continued to persecute Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinian Governor of Jerusalem. On 1 August 2022, Israeli forces stormed the Governor's house in Silwan, arrested him, extended his detention three times in order to prepare an indictment against him, and then released him on the condition of roaming-status house arrest.
The Israeli authorities seek to suppress any Palestinian manifestations in Jerusalem and fight their presence decisively, as they work to prevent the establishment of any event or popular or sovereign role for Palestinian institutions in the city including those sponsored by the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to completely Israelify the city.
Shutting down Palestinian organisations
Israeli authorities extended the closure period of 28 active Palestinian institutions, associations, and organisations in the occupied city of Jerusalem in April 2022, including the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, which deals with the affairs of Palestinian detainees in Israel.
Israeli authorities declared their intention to continue the policy of closing these institutions under the guise of preserving Israeli sovereignty over a “United Jerusalem.”
The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor for Human Rights recommendations:
- The Israeli occupation authorities must stop immediately their grave violations against the Palestinians, especially with regard to the prevention of events, restrictions on building permits, demolition of homes and attacks on public freedoms by arbitrary arrest, beatings, and abuse.
- The Israeli authorities must stop building settlements in occupied Jerusalem immediately, recognise it as an occupied territory, and stop all direct and indirect operations of changing the original character of the City.
- The Palestinian Authority should work with the members of the Security Council to file a formal complaint to the Council to consider Israeli violations of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and Israeli practices against them.
- The international community, particularly EU countries, should play an active role to protect Jerusalem and its inhabitants and should exert real and serious pressure against Israel to give them their rights and stop the violations against them.