When Labib Odeh was looking for a house, he was unable to find anything he could afford in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Odeh works as the director of the local branch of an international organization he preferred not to name in his interview with Al-Monitor. His salary should have been enough for him to make the needed down payment and monthly mortgages of a reasonable home for his family of six. He had been renting for some time and felt he had reached a stage in his life where he could afford to buy his family a home. But the only one he could afford was in the East Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Zeev, not far from Beit Hanina, where he found a house for 1 million shekels ($264,000). In Palestinian neighborhoods, the same 120-square-meter (1,291-square-foot) house with a small yard would cost twice as much.

Khalil Toufakji, the director of the Maps and Survey Department at the Orient House in Jerusalem, explained to Al-Monitor that the housing crisis in East Jerusalem is a direct result of the Israeli government's plans to restrict Palestinian growth. “A decision was taken under the administration [of Prime Minister Golda Meir] to make sure the Palestinian population does not to exceed 28% of both sectors of East and West Jerusalem,” Toufakji said.

According to a 2002 Haaretz article by Israeli journalist Jad’on Levi, the Gavni Committee set up by Meir in 1973 stressed the “importance of maintaining a proportional balance between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem.” According to the article, the Jewish population in 1973 was 73.5% compared to 26.5% Palestinian.

For the 43 years since, this ratio has become the goal of successive Israeli administrations, leaving Jerusalemites, whose natural growth exceeded this ratio, unable to find suitable housing. At present, 36% of the population of both parts of Jerusalem are Palestinian Arabs. Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organization specializing in planning policies, has reported that 20,000 homes in East Jerusalem have been built without permits because of the Israeli restrictions on Palestinian housing.