Palestinians in Jerusalem receive only 7% of housing units

A view of the Palestinian town of Silwan, located next to Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of East Jerusalem, on December 18, 2025. ([Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency])

Palestinians constitute nearly 40 percent of Jerusalem’s population, yet the data indicates that Israeli authorities approved only about 600 housing units for Palestinians in 2025, compared to approximately 9,000 units allocated to Jews.

Reposted from Middle East Monitor, May 12, 2026

New data published by the Israeli rights organisation, Bimkom, reveals an escalation in discriminatory planning policies against Palestinians in Jerusalem. The data indicates that Israeli authorities approved only about 600 housing units for Palestinians in 2025, compared to approximately 9,000 units allocated to Jews.

According to the data, Palestinians, who constitute nearly 40 percent of Jerusalem’s population, received only about 7 percent of all housing units approved this year. The organisation described this as a sign of the deepening of policies restricting urban development in East Jerusalem.

The organisation explained that the period after 2024 saw the approval of approximately 2,000 housing units in Palestinian neighbourhoods, compared to more than 15,700 units in Jewish neighbourhoods, including about 5,700 units beyond the Green Line. Despite this, the Palestinian share in 2024 did not exceed 15 percent of the total approved housing units.

Bimkom confirmed that 2025 witnessed a sharp decline of nearly 70 percent in the number of housing units allocated to Palestinians, noting that this coincides with the acceleration of settlement construction projects and Jewish expansion throughout the city, particularly in settlements beyond the Green Line.

The organisation pointed out that the tightening of land ownership procedures has become one of the most significant obstacles for Palestinians in obtaining building permits, especially since the majority of land in East Jerusalem remains unregistered in the Land Registry.

In the same context, the organisation linked the freeze on Palestinian urban planning to the resumption of land settlement procedures in East Jerusalem since 2018. According to the data, settlement procedures were initiated for approximately 9,000 dunams. Of the 2,300 dunams where procedures have been completed so far, only 1 percent has been registered in the names of Palestinian owners, while 82 percent of the land has been registered in the name of the state, the Jerusalem Municipality, and public bodies, in addition to 13 percent allocated to Jewish entities and settlement institutions.

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