Planning, Restrictions Building Land Permits Confiscation on Use and and Home Access Demolitions Introduction 105 In court, ruling in favor of a Palestinian is almost impossible unless there is a procedural flaw in the issuance or execution of the punitive demolition order.371 In the majority of cases, the Court declared that the merits of the order, which are based on secret discretion and evidence, are not contestable.372 East Jerusalem Israeli authorities defend their systematic demolition of Palestinian homes by describing the act of demolishing buildings built without a permit as common practice worldwide, law enforcement or just. In practice, however, the demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, as elsewhere in Palestine, is a political act imbedded in planning and the allocation of resources intended to reconfigure the city’s demographics. Planning Over a third of the total area of East Jerusalem was confiscated in 1967. On these lands, Israel built more than 40,000 housing units for the Jewish population and not a single unit for the Palestinian population while maintaining a vacuum in planning for Palestinians. The Jordanian planning and development schemes applicable prior to 1967 were unauthorized and no alternative plans were prepared. The first general outline plan for East Jerusalem was produced in 1977,373 but until 1983, not a single local planning scheme had been produced for Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem.374 Instead, the Israeli government adopted a deliberate policy of discrimination against the Palestinian population in Jerusalem in all matters relating to land: expropriation, planning and building.375 Municipal planning policy aims for the goal of demographic homogeneity in an effort to preempt any future challenge to 371 Jelena Madzarevic, ‘International Legal Aspects of Punitive House Demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ (Master, University of Lund, 2005), 14–15; available from http://www. lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24965&postid=1554904; accessed 14 May 2013. 372 Madzarevic, ‘International Legal Aspects of Punitive House Demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’, 13. 373 The first plan for East Jerusalem (AM / 9) was approved in 1977 - 10 years after annexation – a general outline plan in which no building permits were allocated. See: ACRI, Discrimination, Neglect and Deprivation: Planning and Construction Policy in East Jerusalem (2008); available from http:// www.acri.org.il/en/; accessed 23 March 2013. 374 BADIL and COHRE, Ruling Palestine, 127. 375 B’Tselem, A Policy of Discrimination, Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem, 5.