LONDON: Israeli government ministries and public authorities have sharply increased their direct and visible involvement in uprooting Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem since 2023, according to a new report released Monday by the Israeli rights group Ir Amim. The report, “Expulsion: The State Architecture of Dispossession in East Jerusalem,” identifies 19 state and public bodies across eight ministries and institutional entities involved in evictions, home demolitions, property seizures and settlement expansion. It also says six Palestinian communities face expulsion. While efforts to take over Palestinian homes and land have long been associated with settler organizations such as Ateret Cohanim and Elad, the report argues that state institutions are driving dispossession on a far greater scale, rather than merely supporting those groups. “Palestinians are being driven out of East Jerusalem not only by settlers, but also through government decisions, planning procedures and legal mechanisms,” said the report’s authors Aviv Tatarsky and Gal Yanovsky in a statement received by Arab News. “Each action is presented as a separate administrative step, but together they reveal a clear policy: The state is using its powers to push Palestinians out of their homes and make way for Israeli settlements.” The report traces how government bodies use property law, land registration, planning restrictions and enforcement measures to facilitate displacement and settlement growth. The Justice Ministry, through the General Custodian and land registration authorities, facilitates transfers of land and property to state control and settler groups, while the Finance Ministry’s Custodian of Absentee Property enables seizures of Palestinian property, according to the report. The Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Israel Land Authority also advance settlement construction on expropriated land, while the Ministry of Interior and planning authorities promote settlement plans and restrict Palestinian construction. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage funds and advances settlement projects, while the National Security Ministry, the police and the National Enforcement Authority are involved in enforcement, home demolitions and evictions. The report also identifies the Jerusalem Municipality as advancing settlement plans and enforcing demolition orders in Palestinian neighborhoods. These activities are concentrated in and around the Old City, including Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, Ras Al-Amud and the Mount of Olives, where authorities facilitate evictions, property takeovers and settlement-related tourism projects, according to the report. In southeastern East Jerusalem, it says, authorities are advancing new settlements and expanding existing ones at the expense of Palestinian land and residential areas. The six communities facing expulsion are Batan Al-Hawa and Al-Bustan in Silwan, Umm Haroun in Sheikh Jarrah, Umm Tuba, Walajeh and Nu’man. In Al-Bustan, the municipality is pursuing the demolition of 115 homes. In Nu’man, all 45 homes face demolition threats, the report says. Those threats come amid a broader rise in demolitions. Before 2019, Israeli authorities demolished an average of about 50 Palestinian housing units a year in East Jerusalem, according to the report. The annual average has since risen to 131, with 181 units demolished in 2024. The report places those figures within a longer history of land expropriation. Since 1967, Israel has expropriated about 35 percent of East Jerusalem, it says. The Israel Land Authority has issued tenders for more than 60,000 housing units in settlements built on expropriated land, with no comparable tenders in Palestinian neighborhoods. “What appears to be a series of isolated property disputes and planning battles is, in fact, a systematic effort to reshape East Jerusalem and displace its Palestinian residents,” Tatarsky and Yanovsky said.