{mosimage}UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Israel is striving to reduce the number of Palestinians living in Jerusalem while increasing its Jewish population to undermine claims on East Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual Palestinian state, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Monday.
Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem are being expanded and Palestinian communities segmented by the demolition of Palestinian houses and the creation of parks, South African law professor John Dugard said.
"Even in the Old City, Jewish settlements are expanding," he said in his annual report to the U.N. General Assembly.
Israel's West Bank barrier, which the Jewish state says it is building to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, will alone result in the transfer of some 55,000 Palestinians out of Jerusalem when it is built through East Jerusalem, as currently planned, said Dugard.
The barrier will also cut off another 50,000 Palestinians who have Jerusalem identity documents but are now living in satellite communities outside city boundaries because they could not find housing inside the city "owing to the expropriation of land and building restrictions," he said.
"This means that the wall harms over 40 percent of East Jerusalem's 230,000 Palestinians," he said.
Dugard, assigned by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to monitor Israeli practices affecting the human rights of Palestinians, has triggered harsh Israeli criticism for past reports critical of actions by the Jewish state.
Last year he accused Israel of building its barrier on occupied West Bank land in order to confiscate the land between the wall and Israel's pre-1967 border, rather than for security reasons, as Israel insists.
He reiterated this conclusion in his latest report, saying after visiting the area in June that it was "abundantly clear" Israel meant to make the barrier its border.
The barrier and settlements "seriously undermine the fundamental right of self-determination of the Palestinian people, upon which all other rights depend," Dugard said.
The World Court last year declared construction of the barrier to be illegal. It said it should be torn down as it was built on West Bank land rather than along the pre-1967 border separating Israeli and Palestinian territory.
But Israel ignored the ruling, and its Supreme Court this month upheld its right to build a barrier through the West Bank though it ordered the government to reroute parts of the 370-mile (600-km) project.
