JERUSALEM -- A U.N. agency has asked Israel to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem, citing a housing crisis in the part of the city claimed as a future Palestinian capital.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast War. Israel expropriated one-third of the annexed land to build housing for 195,000 Jews.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says in a report Friday that only 13 percent of east Jerusalem is zoned for Palestinian construction. Twenty-eight percent of Palestinian homes are built in violation of zoning restrictions and face possible demolition. The report says about 1,500 demolition orders are currently pending.
Jerusalem's mayor says he enforces the law evenly in Arab and Jewish neighborhoods.
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