Press Releases

(Bethlehem, 6 February 2026)

Operation “Capital Shield,” launched by Israeli colonial forces in Jerusalem on 12 January 2026, constitutes the direct operationalization of the Israeli regime’s Decisive Plan in the city. The Decisive Plan is a comprehensive colonial doctrine aimed at securing colonial control over all  of Palestine through forced displacement, mass demolitions, fragmentation of Palestinian space, and the systematic dismantling of Palestinian urban, social, and political life. Through a nexus of: “Capital Shield,” apartheid laws, colonial expansion and repression, they are fused into a single apparatus designed to permanently bind Jerusalem to Israeli colonies across the West Bank, sever north–south Palestinian continuity, and engineer Palestinian existence into isolated, tightly controlled micro-enclaves within the city itself.

Operation “Capital Shield” destroyed more than 70 structures in Kafr ‘Aqab and Qalandiya.  This destruction paves the way for expansive colonial projects, including the Atarot Plan, which proposes 9,000 colonial units south of Ramallah between Kafr ‘Aqab and Beit Hanina. This is put forth alongside the Nahalat Shimon Plan in Sheikh Jarrah, to forcibly displace Palestinians and replace it with 316 colony units. Together with demolitions in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, the E1 corridor, and the “Fabric of Life Road,” these plans manufacture Palestinian micro-enclaves inside Jerusalem, sever urban and social continuity, and establish an Israeli-only corridor from Western Jerusalem to Mount Scopus onto Ma’ale Adumim colony, severing all Eastern entrances for Palestinians.

In Silwan, including the neighborhoods of Batn al-Hawa and al-Bustan, Palestinian forced displacement is advanced through a layered apartheid regime that merges Israeli discriminatory property law, planning policy, and judicial enforcement. In Batn al-Hawa, Israeli law bars Palestinian refugees from reclaiming homes stolen in the 1948 Nakba while enabling colonizer claims. This discriminatory framework is reinforced by Israeli regime Decisions 3790 (2018) and 3792 (2026), fast-track expulsions, and through the Israeli Supreme Court’s recent rejection of appeals - has facilitated the largest coordinated forced displacement from a single Jerusalem neighborhood since 1967.

In al-Bustan, forcible displacement is driven through discriminatory planning law and demolition policy. Between 6–19 January 2026, 27 Palestinian structures were demolished under the pretext of ‘lacking permits’ rendered virtually unattainable by the Kaminitz Law, which accelerates demolitions, imposes ‘punitive’ fines, and criminalizes Palestinian construction. Through discriminatory planning regimes and “green” colonialism, Palestinian neighborhoods will be erased and reconfigured into Israeli-controlled parks encircling the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque and targeting the forcible displacement of nearly 1,550 Palestinians.

These Israeli regime mechanisms are further operationalized by colonizer organizations such as Ateret Cohanim, which function as arms of the Decisive Plan. Acting in direct coordination with Israeli regime forces, these organizations exploit discriminatory administrative and institutional mechanisms of apartheid to seize Palestinian homes, attack residents, and enforce forcible displacement while suppressing resistance. In al-Bustan, Ateret Cohanim has already taken control of six buildings and is pursuing ongoing court proceedings aimed at the forcible displacement of hundreds of Palestinians in Jerusalem. These apartheid mechanisms are further reinforced through coordinated colonizer attacks: in January 2026 alone, the Jerusalem Governorate documented 53 colonizer attacks, including the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by 4,397 colonizers.

Repression under Operation “Capital Shield” functions as the coercive backbone of the Decisive Plan. Since it started, 103 arrests were recorded across Jerusalem, including in Hizma, Kafr Aqab, and Qalandiya Refugee Camp with wide-scale operations including the total closure of Hizma.  The Bulldozing of UNRWA’s Jerusalem headquarters, to erase UNRWA and build a new colony, alongside electricity and service cuts, and Israeli forces raids in Shu’afat Refugee Camp and the Qalandiya Vocational Training Centre also seeks to quell any resistance and forcibly displace Palestinian refugees again.  By replicating “Operation Iron Wall” inside Jerusalem, Operation “Capital Shield” seeks to eliminate Palestinian resistance, normalize permanent forced displacement and colonial domination across Palestinian cities and refugee camps - a process that must be immediately halted through comprehensive sanctions on the Israeli regime.