The Foreign Office has condemned a new wave of demolitions in East Jerusalem, calling them a violation of international law that has left families homeless and destroyed the economic fabric of the neighbourhood. On Wednesday, Israeli authorities levelled a cluster of buildings in the Wadi al-Joz district, displacing over 30 Palestinian families. The official reason: lack of permits that, critics say, are deliberately impossible to obtain.
For the residents, the loss is more than bricks and mortar. Umm Khaled, a mother of five who watched her family home reduced to rubble, summed it up: ‘They destroyed the future. My husband saved for 15 years to build that house. Now we have nothing.’
The demolition site was a miniature economy. Two grocery shops, a sewing workshop and a computer repair business operated from the ground floors. All are gone. The sewing workshop alone employed six women, some of whom are now facing destitution. The computer repair shop was the only one in the district; its owner, aged 24, had just taken out a loan to expand.
The Foreign Office statement was blunt: ‘The UK is deeply concerned by the demolition of Palestinian-owned structures in East Jerusalem. These actions are illegal under international law and undermine the prospects for a two-state solution. They cause immense suffering and economic hardship, which is unacceptable.’
But British condemnation rings hollow for the displaced. The UK, like the US, has not moved to impose sanctions or trade restrictions over settlement expansion or demolitions. The EU has called for ‘consequences’, but concrete action remains absent. In the meantime, the bulldozers keep rolling.
Economic data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows that in the first half of this year, over 230 structures were demolished in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, displacing more than 400 people. The majority were family homes, but workshops, shops and agricultural buildings also feature prominently.
This is not just a political crisis. It is a bread-and-butter catastrophe. The demolished area in Wadi al-Joz was a hub of small-scale entrepreneurship. Families pooled wages from construction work, taxi driving and teaching to build homes and set up businesses. The sewing workshop, run by a mother of six, was a lifeline for her and her neighbours. Its destruction means lost income and lost skills. The women who worked there now have to scramble for daily labour, often at lower pay.
The cost of rebuilding is prohibitive. Construction prices have soared, and the permit system remains a wall few can scale. The alternative is to rent in overcrowded parts of the city, where rents are rising faster than wages. For many, the only option is to move to poorer areas or leave Jerusalem entirely.
The demolition of homes and livelihoods has a chilling effect on the entire Palestinian economy. It stifles investment, enforces precarity and deepens poverty. According to the World Bank, the West Bank and Gaza’s economy is shrinking, with unemployment at 45 per cent in Gaza and over 20 per cent in the West Bank. East Jerusalem, already squeezed by restrictions on movement and trade, is haemorrhaging economic activity.
The personal cost is incalculable. Families lose not just savings, but social networks, schooling stability and mental health. Children watch their homes crushed. Parents face impossible choices: stay in a shrinking space or leave everything behind. The trauma is passed down.
The Foreign Office insists that the UK is ‘committed to a just and lasting peace’. But for the people of Wadi al-Joz, justice is a distant dream. They want their homes back, their businesses restored, and a future that is not buried under rubble. Until that happens, press releases will feel like mockery.
As Umm Khaled says, through tears: ‘What do they want from us? We only wanted to live.’
