Jerusalem: At daybreak on March 25, 2026, the "Eyes" mural overlooking the narrow streets of Batn al-Hawa in Silwan neighborhood, occupied Jerusalem, silently witnessed another chapter in Jerusalem's long struggle over land and identity. Just 300 meters from Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces sealed off the neighborhood, preventing journalists and residents from entering. Within hours, municipal workers emptied Palestinian homes of furniture and personal belongings, leaving possessions scattered across the streets as families watched their lives dismantled.
According to Palestine news and Information Agency, for the families forced from their homes that morning, the evictions were not simply the outcome of an isolated property dispute. They marked the culmination of years of legal battles in Israeli courts-ending with the loss of homes where generations had lived. The scene in Batn al-Hawa has become one of the clearest illustrations of a broader transformation unfolding across occupied East Jerusalem. Evictions, home demolitions, restrictive planning policies, land registration procedures, settlement expansion, and mounting economic pressures are increasingly intersecting to reshape the city's demographic landscape.
Between January and the end of April 2026, Israeli authorities evicted 15 Palestinian families from Batn al-Hawa after Israel's Supreme Court rejected appeals filed by 20 families, including the Rajabi and Basbous families. Final eviction orders now cover 22 housing units, while another 33 homes remain entangled in legal proceedings that could lead to similar outcomes. Altogether, 55 housing units in the neighborhood face the threat of eviction. The pressures extend well beyond Batn al-Hawa. In Silwan alone, approximately 2,200 Palestinians are considered at risk of displacement-around 1,500 in Al-Bustan neighborhood and another 700 in Batn al-Hawa.
For residents, the legal battles have lasted years. Yaqub Rajabi, a member of the Batn al-Hawa Defense Committee and one of the homeowners facing eviction, says families exhausted every legal avenue, presenting ownership documents and evidence before Israeli courts. He states that these actions are part of a policy aimed at emptying the neighborhood of its Palestinian residents and replacing them with settlers through historical claims dating back more than 150 years. Rajabi mentions that the pace of court rulings has accelerated significantly, with cases that once took years now being decided much more quickly.
Another homeowner, Nidal Rajabi, argues that legal ownership has become secondary. He recalls that Israeli forces entered the family's home before they had sufficient time to remove their belongings. For Zuhair Rajabi, another displaced resident, the process amounts to "theft under legal cover." He says courts increasingly dismissed Palestinian ownership documents while accepting historical claims advanced by settler organizations, particularly after 2023, when eviction decisions appeared to accelerate dramatically. Raed Basbous sees painful historical echoes, as his family faces displacement once again after being displaced during the 1948 Nakba.
Jerusalem affairs researcher Fakhri Abu Diab says Batn al-Hawa cannot be separated from wider settlement plans across Silwan. The neighborhood forms part of what Israeli planning documents often refer to as the "Holy Basin" surrounding Jerusalem's Old City, where settlement projects seek to establish territorial continuity around the historic center. According to Abu Diab, direct evictions represent only one component of a broader strategy that also includes home demolitions, restrictive building permits, financial penalties, economic pressures, and rising property prices that make remaining in Jerusalem increasingly difficult for Palestinian residents.
The European Union has repeatedly expressed opposition to Israeli settlement policies in occupied East Jerusalem, stating that forced evictions, demolitions, and property seizures violate international law while worsening humanitarian conditions and increasing tensions. Data collected over recent years point to Silwan as one of the hardest-hit areas in East Jerusalem. In 2024, Israeli occupation authorities demolished 68 structures there, including 50 residential homes. In 2025, another 66 buildings were demolished, among them 56 homes-the highest annual figure recorded in the neighborhood.
Efforts to accelerate land registration have become highly controversial among Palestinian legal experts. Academic researcher Khaled Odetallah argues that the renewed registration process is closely tied to broader efforts to reshape the city. Although presented by Israeli authorities as an administrative measure, he says the process reopens ownership questions concerning lands where Palestinian families have lived for generations. Many Jerusalem families rely on old deeds, inheritance records, and historical sales contracts that may not satisfy modern registration requirements, leaving thousands of dunums potentially vulnerable to legal challenges.
Officials from the Jerusalem Governorate say developments during the first half of 2026 reflect an unprecedented escalation. According to the governorate's adviser, Marouf Al-Rifai, Israeli authorities carried out 288 demolition and land-leveling operations during the first six months of the year, including 198 direct demolitions and 66 forced self-demolitions. The governorate also documented 762 expulsion orders, 31 house-arrest orders, 10 travel bans, and 89 settlement plans involving thousands of new settlement units.
The governorate also recorded the confiscation of more than 1,398 dunams of land between early 2025 and mid-2026, alongside the approval of seven new settlement plans. Among the largest is the E1 settlement project, which Palestinian officials say threatens approximately 7,000 Palestinians in 22 Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem with displacement. From the emptied homes of Batn al-Hawa to the crowded apartment blocks of Kafr Aqab, where many displaced Jerusalemites have relocated beyond the separation barrier while retaining their Jerusalem residency, the city's geography is being reshaped neighborhood by neighborhood. For many Palestinian families, the struggle is no longer only about protecting individual homes, but about preserving their place in Jerusalem itself.