Israel steps up evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem

In Silwan in East Jerusalem, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli authorities have given eviction orders to Palestinian Kayed Rajabi and his neighbors to make way for an Israeli settler organization which has already taken over parts of the Palestinian district illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

Rajabi's home is surrounded by buildings that have raised large Israeli flags — a sign they are owned by settlers, who he said began buying homes in 2004, and have obtained about 40 buildings in Silwan now, many via forced evictions.

Settler group Ateret Cohanim had offered to buy him and other Palestinians out, he said, but most had refused.

He said he was among 32 families in the neighborhood who have now been ordered to leave, with him and his brothers given until the end of Ramadan — mid-March — to depart under an order from Israel's Supreme Court that he showed Reuters.

"They want to force me out of the house I was born in, where my eyes first opened to life," said Rajabi, explaining that his family had lived there since 1967 and bought the land from a Jordanian officer.

Daniel Luria, the executive director of Ateret Cohanim, called Palestinians in Silwan "illegal squatters," saying the land was owned by Yemeni Jews before 1929 and that moving back was rectifying a historical injustice. Rajabi said that account was untrue.

The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

For Palestinians in the occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem, forced evictions evoke the fate of Palestinians who were forcibly driven from their homes in the 1948 Nakba when the State of Israel was established.

As for the possibility of a Palestinian state, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the aim is to 'bury' the idea.

Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital — a status not recognized internationally — and has encouraged Jewish settlement of predominantly Palestinian areas. Violent Israeli settler incursions have ramped up since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

Silwan is particularly contentious due to its proximity to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which Israel has consistently threatened to build over.

Rajabi said that Ateret Cohanim had offered him a blank check to leave, an offer he refused. "I wouldn't sell them even a grain of soil. They told me, 'Put whatever number you want and we're ready to pay'," he said.

He said that some people in the neighborhood had sold their homes, but that most families had refused.

Luria said 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.

Numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity. If Palestinians refuse orders to leave, armed Israeli police go in to forcibly evict them and bring bulldozers to demolish their homes, often presenting the homeowners with a bill to front up the demolition cost.

Rajabi said that with the high prices for rent in Jerusalem, he does not know where he and his family will go. "People will live in the streets," he said.