Batn al-Hawa is under threat: Five eviction orders in one week threaten 250 Jerusalemites
A dangerous escalation threatens the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, after just one week turned into a dark moment in the process of forced displacement. Israeli courts issued five consecutive eviction orders targeting the Al-Rajabi and Basbous families, placing approximately 250 Jerusalemites at risk of losing their homes. These orders are part of a systematic settlement plan led by the Ateret Cohanim association to seize control of large areas of the neighborhood, claiming historical ownership dating back to before 1881. This means that dozens of other families could be the next victims.
The District Court issued a decision today, Sunday, ordering the eviction of the Al-Rajabi family building in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, in favor of settlers.
The residential building belongs to Zuhair Al-Rajabi, head of the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood committee, and his six siblings. It consists of seven apartments inhabited by the family.
Zuhair Al-Rajabi explained that the eviction order was issued in absentia by the District Court.
Al-Rajabi explained that the decision to vacate their building coincided with a special session to consider the appeal submitted by Yaqoub Al-Rajabi against the decision to evict his family's 11 homes.
He added that eviction orders and rejections of appeals have been increasing rapidly recently. He explained that, in just one week, the courts rejected the appeals filed by Abdel Fattah Al-Rajabi, Khalil Basbous, and Yousef Basbous. Today, a decision was issued regarding his family's building, while the case of Yaqoub Al-Rajabi's family is still pending before the courts and is expected to be decided within the next few hours.
Rajabi noted that the courts have imposed a NIS 20,000 fee on each family in attorney fees and have given them until November to file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court. With the exception of Khalil Basbous, who was not given any extension, he faces eviction at any time.
He added that the eviction orders issued this week alone threaten approximately 250 individuals living in 26 apartments in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem explained that all the threatened buildings and apartments are located within a settlement plan by the "Ateret Cohanim" association, which aims to control an area of 5200 square meters in the "Al-Hara Al-Wusta" of the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, claiming that it has been owned by Jews of Yemeni origin since 1881. The center indicated that this area is divided into six plots of land with specific numbers, and the association claims that the Israeli Supreme Court has approved the settlers' ownership of these lands.
The settlement association had served the family with the first court notice in 2016, demanding the return of the land on which the property was built. A series of court hearings then began, during which the first eviction order was issued by the Magistrate's Court in 2020.
The center noted that the targeted land contains between 30 and 35 residential buildings, inhabited by approximately 80 families, comprising approximately 600 individuals. All of them have lived in the neighborhood for decades, having purchased the land and properties from their previous owners with official documents in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
The center confirmed that the Ateret Cohanim Association has succeeded in recent years in implementing several eviction orders against Jerusalemite families from the neighborhood, including the Shehadeh, Ghaith, and Abu Nab families, as part of the same case related to the alleged Jewish ownership of the land.
