Forced Evictions - Assessing the Impact on Palestinian Women in East Jerusalem
By WCLAC
December 22, 2010

Introduction

The home is the centre of most women’s lives in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). The home not only provides basic shelter but is a place where women participate in social activities with friends and family, where they can create a safe and secure environment for their children, and can also be a location for economic activity. The particular relationship that women have with their homes means that forced eviction or the threat of being forced from their home has an acute and distinct impact on their lives.

This report focuses on East Jerusalem, where many Palestinian women are affected by forced evictions and displacement, and in many cases by the subsequent demolition of their home. The report analyses the short and medium term impact of these events on women. International humanitarian law and international human rights law provide the framework for the report, and substantiate the fact that these issues are violations of human rights, and of women’s human rights in particular. The testimonies also illustrate the cross-cutting nature of many of the issues and rights violations. While housing rights are the dominant issue, many other rights are affected: the right to family life; residency rights; the right to freedom of movement and many other economic and social rights.

This report begins with an overview of the situation in East Jerusalem, the area’s legal status and the overall housing and planning context within it. This is followed by a short overview of the relevant international human rights law and international humanitarian law principles. The following section analyses the impact of forced evictions on women. The next section of the report focuses on the experiences of the women that WCLAC has interviewed, from whom we have gathered the detailed testimony provided in this report. Through these testimonies we highlight the impact of the incident of forced eviction, before, during and after its occurrence, discussing its economic and social impact and its emotional and psychological consequences on women. The report concludes with some recommendations for future action.

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