Planning, Restrictions Building Land Permits Confiscation on Use and and Home Access Demolitions Introduction 109 become mandatory until final approval, the Plan constitutes guiding policy at times supplanting pre-existing and already approved plans when driven by authorities’ political considerations.394 Building Permits A prerequisite to the authorization of a building permit is the existence of an approved town-planning scheme as stipulated under the Israeli Planning and Building Law of 1965. Such a scheme delineates which lands may be used for residential purposes detailing number of floors, plumbing infrastructure, etc. Residents must then obtain a separate permit for the actual construction, which is issued by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee.395 Lack of a building permit opens avenues for the Israeli authorities to issue a demolition order. Actions that may incur this risk include: building without a permit, using a building without a permit and building contrary to zoning (i.e. areas not allocated for residential or private building). Acquiring a building permit entails proving ownership, filing an application form and receiving approval of the application. Considering the difficulties associated with procuring a permit, the risks to Palestinian housing rights in East Jerusalem have reached a mass scale: 20,000 buildings lack permits, home to between 180,000 and 270,000 persons.396 Documenting Land Ownership (Land Registration) The Israeli authorities froze land registration within the occupied Palestinian territory in 1967 and, correspondingly, a presence in the Israeli Land Registrar has become a central prerequisite for obtaining building permits.397 Most of the land in East Jerusalem is not registered with the Israeli Land Registrar however, and the requirement of registration is a departure from previous arrangements which required only that residents prove legitimate possession of the land by presenting 394 B’Tselem, A Policy of Discrimination, Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem. 395 BADIL and COHRE, Ruling Palestine, 127. 396 COHRE, Second Quarterly Report: Violations of the Right to Adequate Housing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (June 2009); available from http://www.americantaskforce.org/resourc es/2009/06/24/1245816000_0; accessed 2 May 2013. 397 OCHA, Special Focus: East Jerusalem Key Humanitarian Concerns (March 2011), 30; available from http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/0D90191FBC1DDBC88525785C004DF7A5.