The Independent Commission for Human Rights - ICHR 35 tural Work Committees and Health Work Committees, infringing on operations of Palestinian civil society organisations. The Israeli occupying authorities labelled six Palestinian civil society groups as “terrorist organisations”. This represented a grave assault on Palestinian institutional activity and put at risk the capacity and pioneering role of affected actors in providing services to Palestinians. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) held support meetings and considered Israeli arbitrary measures against civil society groups, which serve as partners to the government, as a threat to their ability to provide services to Palestinian society. It also impedes the MoI functions and ability to carry out its mandate and achieve its strategic goal of bolstering relations with civil society and partners. The MoI position was in tandem with that of Palestinian institutions, affirming rejection of any conditional funding. Civil society actors also refused the EU document on conditional funding.39 1.1.8 Violations against Jerusalem According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),40 Israel far surpassed its previous records for home demolitions, confiscations, and displacements in East Jerusalem. The Israeli occupying authorities demolished a total of 177 residential buildings and several hundred livelihood structures, commercial premises, service facilities, walls, etc., displacing some 332 Palestinians in the city. Self-demolitions were the most difficult challenge to Jerusalemites, who were haunted by daily prosecutions, hefty fines, and threats of home demolition. The price of home demolition by bulldozers of the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality is charged on affected Palestinian citizens. In the context of property confiscation, Israeli bulldozers levelled dozens of dunums of land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, Beit Safafa, and Silwan. In a dangerous precedent, the Israeli occupying authorities levelled large parts of the Al-Yusufiya cemetery at the Golden Gate in the old city of Jerusalem as a prelude to the construction of a biblical park. More and more home demolition orders were issued in the context of a policy that designates more than 20,000 Palestinian homes to be in breach of the Israeli Building Law. As a result, Israeli threats of home demolitions have put thousands of Palestinian citizens under constant mental and social stress. On the other hand, the Israeli government approved the construction of 12,000 housing units in settlements across East Jerusalem. Earlier, the Israeli occupying authorities had announced plans to construct 14,549 housing units in illegal settlements. As part Israel’s prosecution of Palestinians, various Israeli security agencies contacted citizens over mobile telephones, threatening to inflict punishment and enforce eviction, demolition or confiscation orders if they engage in any protest against Israeli policies. Palestinians are also threatened of deprivation from health insurance and medical services, dismissal from work, or revocation of Jerusalemite ID cards in the event they take part in activities against Israeli policies. Key forms of collective punishment and human rights abuses in Jerusalem were as follows:41 • Israel desecrated the sanctity of Islamic and Christian holy shrines. Marking a greater participation of Israeli extreme rightists, daily raids onto the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were escalated. Compounded by Israeli Police and security harassments, gates to the mosque were shut down. Muslim worshippers were also assailed while they performed religious ceremonies. According to the Islamic Waqf Department, the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were raided on 34,112 occasions. Aiming at erasing the Arab character of East Jerusalem and grab church lands, the Israeli occupying authorities continued to attack church properties, particularly in the Jaffa Gate area, Christian Quarter, and At-Talibiya neighbourhood. • Israel carried out prosecutions against the backdrop of the right to freedom of opinion and ex- 39 Letter from the MoI Democracy and Human Rights Unit, 21 February 2022. 41 Letter from the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs (MoJA). Israeli Violations and their Consequent on the Ministry’s Functions in 2021, March 2022. 40 OCHA. West Bank demolitions and displacement | November - December 2021, February 2022. Twenty Seventh Annual Report 2021