106 Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem.376 So-called “demographic balance” saturates planning with restrictions and burdensome bureaucratic procedures derived from political bias.377 Israeli zoning policy permits Palestinians to build in only 13 percent of East Jerusalem (nine percent to build residential buildings) much of which is already built up. 378 Israel applies the Planning and Building Law of 1965 (Chapter Five)379 to annexed East Jerusalem prohibiting authorization of building permits for areas not zoned for construction, that lack a planning scheme or that have not completed a process of reparcellation.380 Zoning is, therefore, integral to delegitimizing Palestinian construction in Jerusalem.381 Local Town Planning Schemes Local Town Planning Schemes are the most important means for supervising planning. According to the Planning and Building Law, the purpose of a Local Town Planning Scheme is to define development, allocate territory in accordance with expected demand and population growth, and determine infrastructure such as traffic arteries. The planning authorities use three main mechanisms to achieve the goal of "demographic balance" by reducing housing options for Palestinians: not preparing a 376 In 1993 City Engineer Elinoar Barzacchi expressed State policy when she described the municipality‘s strategy for dealing with the “demographic threat” of the Palestinian population, particularly dangerous in Jerusalem: ‘There is a government decision to maintain the proportion between the Arab and Jewish population in the city at 28 percent Arab and 72 percent Jew. The only way to cope with that ration is through the housing potential.’ See: Eyal Weizman, ‘Demographic Architecture’, Jerusalem Quarterly 38 (Summer 2009): 17. 377 In 1973, the Israeli government adopted the recommendation of the Inter-ministerial Committee to Examine the Rate of Development for Jerusalem, which determined that a “demographic balance of Jews and Arabs must be maintained as it was at the end of 1972”, that is, 73.5 percent Jews, and 26.5 percent Palestinians. Current estimates place the Palestinian population at 39 percent. See: ACRI, East Jerusalem - By the Numbers (May 7, 2013); available from http://www.acri.org.il/ en/2013/05/07/ej-figures/; accessed 14 May 2013. 378 OCHA, Special Focus: The Planning Crisis in East Jerusalem: Understanding the Phenomenon of ‘illegal’ Construction (April 2009); available from http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2F8FB6437D B17CA5852575A9004D7CB4. 379 Planning and Building Law 5725-1965, 1965; available from http://www.israellawresourcecenter.org/ israellaws/fulltext/planningbuildinglaw.htm; accessed 22 April 2013. 380 The Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, Aggressive Urbanism: Urban Planning and the Displacement of Palestinians Within and from Occupied East Jerusalem (Jerusalem, December 2009), 17; available from http://www.civiccoalition-jerusalem.org/ccdprj.ps/ new/pdfs/Aggressive%20Urbanism%20Report.pdf; accessed 23 April 2013. 381 For example, land planned as Open Landscape Areas or ‘green areas’ (22 percent of planned Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem) prohibits building. 30 percent of East Jerusalem is unplanned. See: Bimkom and Ir Amim, The Planning Deadlock: Planning Policy, Land Regularization, Building Permits and House Demolitions in East Jerusalem (April 2005).