Families evicted from homes in East Jerusalem after court rules that property belongs to Jews

Eleven Palestinian families are being evicted from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of East Jerusalem’s Silwan, following a Supreme Court ruling last year that the houses originally belonged to Jews.

The court found that the houses were owned by Jews before Jordan occupied East Jerusalem in 1948, the year of Israel’s War of Independence, and must therefore be returned to Ateret Cohanim, the right-wing organization that petitioned to receive the properties.

Palestinian families had petitioned against the eviction, but their appeals were rejected late last year in several rulings that ordered 157 residents of the neighborhood to leave their homes.

According to left-wing group B’Tselem, more than 30 families have been evicted from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in the last few years.

بحجة ملكية الأرض ليهود من أصول يمنية
.. قوات الاحتلال تُخلي 11 سكنة لعائلة الرجبي في حي بطن الهوى ببلدة سلوان لصالح الجمعيات الاستيطانية. pic.twitter.com/fLbnjvFbzQ

— القسطل الإخباري (@AlQastalps) March 25, 2026