Seizing the property of the Rajabi family in Silwan
The settler organization Ateret Cohanim seized the Rajabi residential building earlier this week, claiming the property has been owned by Yemeni Jews since the 1800s.
On Sunday morning, Israeli occupation authorities, represented by personnel from the enforcement and execution department and special forces, stormed the Rajabi family's property and demanded the family's immediate evacuation under a court order. They warned against any delays or postponements. Nasser, Ayed, and their mother were forced to comply with the eviction order after a nearly ten-year legal battle in Israeli courts.
Approximately 50 people, spread across the building's three apartments, were forced to evacuate and hastily pack their belongings. Just hours after the evacuation, Ateret Cohanim took control of the property.
Since taking control of it, the association has begun changing the locks, raising a huge Israeli flag on the building’s facade in the middle of the neighborhood, and placing metal sheets to cover the murals that have been on the building’s walls for years, in addition to installing wires and protections on the building’s windows and roof.
The Rajabi family waged a ten-year legal battle in Israeli courts to preserve their property, moving through the Magistrates, District, and Supreme Courts. The settler organization Ateret Cohanim filed its first lawsuit against the family in 2016, claiming ownership of the land on which the property sits. The hearings continued until the Magistrates Court issued the first eviction order in 2020, followed by a final ruling from the Supreme Court in the middle of this year. The deadline for implementing the order was the end of 2025.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem explained that the Ateret Cohanim organization claims ownership of approximately 5200 square meters of land in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, alleging that it belonged to Yemeni Jews since 1881. Since 2015, the organization has been serving families in the neighborhood with notices and legal summonses demanding they vacate their homes, following its 2001 acquisition of the right to manage what it calls "Jewish Association Properties," which it claims own the land.
The center added that the targeted land contains 30 to 35 residential buildings, housing approximately 80 Jerusalemite families (around 600 individuals), all of whom have lived in the neighborhood for decades and have purchased the land and properties from their previous owners, using official documents dating back to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Indeed, the Ateret Cohanim organization has taken control of several homes and buildings in the neighborhood that belong to the Shehadeh, Ghaith, Abu Nab, Rajabi, and Shweiki families.
The Enforcement and Execution Department also served an eviction order on the Basbous family, giving them until January 5, 2026, to comply. Last September, the Supreme Court issued a decision ordering the eviction of the Basbous family from their property, which includes two residential buildings: the first is a three-story building with four apartments, and the second is a two-story building with two apartments, inhabited by about 55 people, all of whom have been living in the neighborhood since the 1960s.
