Coercive Urban Governance through Home Demolition and Displacement in Jabal Mukabbir

Jabal Mukabbir, a scenic Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, offers a clear example of how urban governance can be weaponized to produce coercive outcomes. Over the past decade, and with particular intensity since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli authorities have relied on planning and building law, policing, and demolition practices to regulate not construction, but Palestinian presence itself. Recent demolitions in the neighborhood are not exceptional events; they are the latest expressions of a long-standing policy framework.1

On February 25, 2025, Israeli forces demolished at least two Palestinian homes in Jabal Mukabbir2 during a military-style raid that involved heavy police presence, arrests, and injuries. One of the homes belonged to the Sari family.3 According to on-the-ground reporting, three Palestinians were detained, and two were wounded during the operation, which extended to other parts of Jerusalem, including the Kufr ‘Aqab neighborhood beyond the Separation Wall (see Neighborhoods beyond the Wall). The demolitions were carried out under the pretext of a lack of Israeli-issued building permits.4 Such permits are all but impossible for Palestinian Jerusalemites to obtain.5

This incident reflects the routine nature of demolitions in the neighborhood: they are often conducted with little notice, accompanied by force, and framed as administrative enforcement despite their clearly punitive and disruptive effects on civilian life.

Palestinians in Jabal Mukabbir, like elsewhere in East Jerusalem, face severe restrictions on construction. Large portions of the neighborhood are zoned as “green areas” or are excluded from approved outline plans, making it nearly impossible for residents to obtain building permits.6 Israeli authorities approve only a small fraction of Palestinian permit applications annually, while population growth and housing needs continue unabated.7

Consequently, families are pushed to build without permits, after which their homes become vulnerable to demolition. This creates a closed loop: construction is criminalized, enforcement is inevitable, and displacement becomes a predictable outcome.

Beyond state-led demolitions, Israeli authorities increasingly rely on forced self-demolition orders. Families are compelled to destroy their own homes under threat of heavy fines and additional punitive costs if municipal crews carry out the demolition instead.

Human rights organizations and UN bodies have documented the long-term psychological, social, and economic harm caused by this practice, particularly to children.8

In Jabal Mukabbir, self-demolition has become a normalized mechanism of control, one that transfers the act of destruction onto the victims, while maintaining the appearance of legal procedure.

When viewed individually, each demolition is presented as a response to a technical violation. When viewed collectively, a different picture emerges. Repeated demolitions, arrests, raids, and planning restrictions combine to produce what the United Nations describes as a “coercive environment”9—conditions that pressure residents to leave their homes and, ultimately, the city.

Jabal Mukabbir’s strategic location overlooking southern Jerusalem, combined with its dense Palestinian population, makes it a focal point for such policies. What unfolds here is not urban management, but demographic regulation through spatial control.

This example from Jabal Mukabbir clarifies a broader reality across East Jerusalem: urban governance is being used, not to serve residents, but to reshape the city’s demographic and political landscape. Recent demolitions are best understood not as isolated incidents, but as part of a sustained strategy that operates through law, force, and bureaucratic pressure (see Forcible Home Expulsions). Opposition to demolitions is managed through arrests, reinforcing enforcement through both planning law and policing.

In this Photo Story, images of demolished homes, self-demolition in progress, and armed raids are not just scenes of destruction; they are visual evidence of a governing system designed to make Palestinian life in Jerusalem increasingly untenable.