Beyza Binnur Donmez
06 March 2026•Update: 07 March 2026
GENEVA
UN human rights experts warned Friday that "irreparable harm" is being inflicted on Jerusalem as violence escalates across the region and the war in Gaza spills into the occupied West Bank.
"Under the cover of an existential war against the Palestinians, Israel is accelerating measures that alter Jerusalem's demographic composition, religious character and legal status," the experts said in a statement.
The statement was endorsed by several UN human rights experts and special rapporteurs covering the occupied Palestinian territory, human rights, racial discrimination, food, and other related rights.
They warned that the measures are "destroying the remnants of the pluralistic fabric that Jerusalem has represented for centuries, for Muslims, Christians and Jews.”
"What is being done to this world symbol of spiritual coexistence and shared heritage is irreversible," they warned.
According to the experts, extrajudicial killings, demolitions and forced displacement have intensified in occupied East Jerusalem, while checkpoints and closures are isolating Palestinian communities from their social, cultural and religious life.
"These are not security measures," the experts said. “They are components of a systematic project of demographic engineering and domination to entrench exclusive Jewish control."
The experts stressed that 144 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Jerusalem’s governorate between 2021 and 2025, while 11,555 people were arrested. Authorities also issued 2,386 deportation orders and carried out more than 1,732 demolitions and land leveling operations.
They also raised concern about restrictions on access to holy sites, noting that 73,871 settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were reported in 2025 alone.
Such actions violate international humanitarian and human rights law and "may amount to war crimes," they said.
They urged immediate international action following the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful, calling on states not to recognize or assist the occupation.
"What is unfolding mirrors colonial enterprises of past centuries, carried out in real time, undermining a fully developed international legal system," they said. "What is erased now – the richness of Jerusalem’s communities, heritage and rights – will not be restored. Inaction is not neutrality; it is complicity."
