Jerusalem, ALRAY - UN human rights experts have said that the forced eviction and displacement of Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem "may amount to a war crime forcible transfer".

In a press statement Wednesday, the UN experts called for reversing such moves immediately.

“It is deeply shocking and heartbreaking to see Nora Ghaith and Mustafa Sub Laban, an older Palestinian couple, evicted from their family home where they have lived all their lives and raised their children,” they said.

“As we have repeatedly said, forced evictions of Palestinians in east Jerusalem are part of Israel’s apartheid machinery at work, designed to consolidate Jewish ownership of Jerusalem and racially dominate the city’s population.”

The experts emphasised that such move "is not unique but is representative of a widespread and systematic practice by Israel to forcibly evict and displace Palestinians from east Jerusalem and “de-palestinize” the city."

They denounced the Israeli occupation's forcible transfer of the indigenous Palestinian population as a "gross violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime".

They continued: “Israel must immediately cease these deliberate acts, which not only deliberately violate Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, non-discrimination, development, adequate housing and property, but also traumatize the affected family and the entire Palestinian community living defenceless under Israeli rule, and violate the fundamental norms and principles of international law.”

They called on the international community to put an end to the "unrelenting assaults on the system of international law."

The experts pointed out that they had repeatedly raised these issues with the Israeli occupation government without any response to date.