Geneva, MINA – United Nations human rights experts issued a stark warning on 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, with policies altering the city’s demographic composition potentially constituting war crimes, Anadolu Agency reported.
“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 joint statement.
The statement was endorsed by multiple UN human rights experts and special rapporteurs covering the occupied Palestinian territory, human rights, racial discrimination, food, and other related rights. They warned that these 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 cautioned.
Read Also: Gaza Needs 260,000 New Tents as Winter Floods Displacement Camps
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 asserted. “They are components of a systematic project of demographic engineering and domination to entrench exclusive Jewish control.”
The experts highlighted alarming statistics from recent years, reporting that 144 Palestinians were 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 during the same period.
## Restrictions on Holy Sites
Read Also: Israeli Forces Raid Homes, Kidnap Palestinians Across West Bank
The UN experts also raised serious 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.
The experts urged immediate international action following the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful. They called 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 warned. “What is erased now – the richness of Jerusalem’s communities, heritage and rights – will not be restored. Inaction is not neutrality; it is complicity.”
Read Also: Heavy Rains Flood Thousands of Displacement Tents Across Gaza
The warning comes amid escalating regional tensions following the US-Israeli offensive against Iran and ongoing violations of the Gaza ceasefire, which have further destabilized the occupied territories and raised international concern about the protection of civilian populations.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
Read Also: Israel to Deport 12 International Activists Detained Supporting Palestinian Olive Harvest
Mina Indonesia
Mina Arabic
Mina Sport