residents.106 However, as has been the case in the past, one goal dictates the current municipal planning policy: to create a demographic and geographic reality capable of curbing any efforts to challenge Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem. Planning restrictions, burdensome procedures, and political bias create serious planning difficulties that complicate, in theory and in practice, the insurance of the Palestinian right to the city as a political, cultural and religiouscapital.107 Furthermore, the Planning and Building Law also revealed the most important means for supervising municipal planning: the Local Town Planning Schemes (TPS). The main purpose of these TPS is to define development, to allocate territory in accordance with expected demand and population growth and to determine infrastructure such as roads. The planning authorities use three main mechanisms to limit the building possibilities for Palestinians: not preparing a TPS, delaying its preparation or preparing plans that limit the Palestinian building possibilities.108 It is remarkable that, since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, no comprehensive Local Town Planning Scheme for Palestinian neighborhoods has been approved. Given the impossibility to obtain a building permit without an approved plan, tens of thousands of people have no legal way to build and many are forced to build without a permit. At the same time, other plans approved for Palestinian neighborhoods ignore the population growth. Their purpose seems clearly to prevent Palestinians from making use of the little land available to them and to grant legal validity to the prevention of building in most of the area of the Palestinian neighborhoods.109 The first plan approved for East Jerusalem (AM/9), in 1977, was a general outline plan in which no building permits could be achieved. Since then, over 20 local zoning plans in East Jerusalem were approved on an area of approximately 24,700 out of 46,000 dunums of East Jerusalem that remained under the ownership of the Palestinian residents.110 This led to the present situation in which only 13% of East Jerusalem is zoned by Israel for Palestinian construction. Out of the in 1967 annexed area, 24.5 km² (35%) was confiscated for 'public purposes', mainly in order to build new Israeli colonies. Another 24.7 km² (35%) has Master Plans approved by the Jerusalem District Committee, yet on 22% of this area it is not allowed to build, nor to buy or 106 Ir Amim, “Jerusalem Master Plan 2000.” 107 Khamaisi, “Barriers in Achieving Urban Planning Rights in Jerusalem’s Socio-Cultural Conflict,” 3. 108 BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians, A Handbook for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities, 106. 109 B’Tselem, A Policy of Discrimination, Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem, 58. 110 Discrimination, Neglect and Deprivation: Planning and Construction Policy in East Jerusalem, Written by Attorney Nasrat Dakwar (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) and Architect Efrat Cohen - Bar (“Bimkom” - Planners for Planning Rights) 38