File photo: Border Police officers stop Israeli settlers from entering the Palestinian West Bank town of Turmus Ayya. AP
Kayed Rajabi, a Silwan resident, told Reuters that he and his neighbours had been ordered to leave their homes following a ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court. Rajabi said he and his brothers were given until the end of Ramadan, in mid-March, to vacate the house where his family has lived since 1967.
Silwan lies just south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and has been a focal point of settlement activity for years. Buildings flying large Israeli flags now surround Rajabi’s home, marking properties taken over by settlers. Israeli settlers began purchasing homes in the area in 2004 and have since acquired around 40 buildings, many through court-ordered evictions.
Rajabi said the settler organization Ateret Cohanim had offered to buy him out, including what he described as a “blank cheque”, but that he refused. “I wouldn’t sell them even a grain of soil,” he said. “They told me, ‘Put whatever number you want and we’re ready to pay.’”
According to Rajabi, 32 families in his immediate area have now been ordered to leave. The United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says around 700 Palestinians across Silwan remain at risk of eviction.
“They want to force me out of the house I was born in, where my eyes first opened to life,” Rajabi said. He added that his family purchased the land from a Jordanian officer and has lived there for decades.
“I am convinced that there is no hope anymore. In the past, sometimes the courts ruled in our favour. Now there is no chance,” said Zuhair Rajabi, a longtime community leader and organizer, and the designated spokesperson of more than 80 households in Silwan—all under threat of eviction, quoted UN Palestine.
The potential eviction of the Rajabi family would add to forced generational displacement, Palestinians say, stretching back to 1948.
Across the occupied West Bank, 6,463 Palestinians were forcibly displaced between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2025 following home demolitions, according to OCHA.
That figure does not include around 40,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced from refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem during large-scale Israeli army assaults since January 2025. More than 2,200 additional Palestinians were displaced during the same period due to settler attacks and access restrictions, the UN said.
Ateret Cohanim rejects Palestinian ownership in Silwan. Its executive director, Daniel Luria, told Reuters that Palestinians living there were “illegal squatters”, claiming that the land belonged to Yemeni Jews before 1929. Rajabi said the claim was false.
Luria added that Ateret Cohanim had offered Silwan residents compensation for leaving. “This is part of an unfolding Zionist dream,” said Luria of the purchase of homes in Silwan.
The Israeli Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of a future state. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim not recognized internationally.
Israeli officials, including extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have spoken of 'burying' the idea of a Palestinian state.
Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital—a status not recognised internationally—and has encouraged Jewish settlement of predominantly Palestinian areas.
Terrorist settler incursions have ramped up since the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, where Israel killed over 72,000 Palestinians. During the same period, over 2,200 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks and access restrictions.
Israeli settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank is considered illegal under international law. Multiple UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt settlement expansion, resolutions successive Israeli governments have rejected.
If Palestinian families refuse eviction orders, Israeli police can enforce removals, followed by the demolition of homes.
Rajabi said soaring rents in Jerusalem have left him uncertain about where his family could go. “People will live in the streets,” he said.
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