(Beirut) – Israeli authorities are accelerating home demolitions and forced evictions of Palestinian residents in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The forcible deportation or transfer of the population of an occupied territory within or outside the territory, unless justified on a temporary basis for the protection of the population itself or imperative military reasons, is a violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.
Silwan lies south of Jerusalem’s Old City. Among its 12 neighborhoods, al-Bustan and Batn al-Hawa have for decades been the primary focus of eviction and demolition campaigns led by Israeli authorities and settler organizations such as Ateret Cohanim. These campaigns intensified under cover of the hostilities in Gaza and, this year, Iran. Of the 587 Palestinians displaced by demolitions since October 7, 2023, a quarter were displaced during Israel’s war with Iran in March-April 2026, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over 2,000 people are at risk of forced displacement in Silwan, which, if not halted, will be one of the largest waves of expulsions in East Jerusalem since 1967, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli group that tracks government policies in Jerusalem.
“Israeli authorities are intensifying their longstanding illegal policy of emptying areas surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City of Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers,” said Sarah Sanbar, acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Israeli efforts to change the demography of Jerusalem are war crimes, enabled by the impunity granted by Israel’s close allies.”
Human Rights Watch researchers visited Silwan in April 2026 and interviewed three residents issued eviction and/or demolition orders and two lawyers representing clients in Silwan, and reviewed relevant legal documents. Human Rights Watch attempted to reach Ateret Cohanim by phone but has not received a response.
The surge in displacement in Batn al-Hawa results from a series of eviction lawsuits filed by Ateret Cohanim, based on discriminatory laws allowing Jewish individuals to reclaim East Jerusalem property lost in the 1948 war, while barring Palestinians from recovering property also lost in 1948. In al-Bustan, the entire neighborhood of 115 homes housing 1,500 people is under threat of demolition due to the municipality’s plan to establish an archaeological park.
Zuheir al-Rajabi, director of Batn al-Hawa’s community center, said that Ateret Cohanim first initiated eviction proceedings in 2015. “At the beginning, we said, ‘What can they do? This is our land and house, we have nothing to fear,’” he told Human Rights Watch.
For a decade, he fought the eviction in Israeli courts: “But after October 7, everything became possible. Judges began issuing eviction orders without giving a chance to defend or hear from the victims. It used to take three to five years to go through all the courts and appeals. After October 7, the whole process only takes 45 days.”
A local lawyer said that “Sometimes, the decision takes one working day.”
Since October 7, Ateret Cohanim lawsuits have resulted in the eviction of 30 families, a total of 139 people, with enforcement proceedings underway for hundreds more, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group. In the 8 previous years, only 36 people were evicted.
Zuheir said that Israeli settlers have moved into the homes of his former neighbors: “Now we feel like we are at the end of the road. [...] For the last 50 years, we all lived together in Silwan, my brothers and I, and our children growing up with each other. We fought hard to stay together, and finally after 50 years, they succeeded in splitting us apart.”
In April 2024, Harbi al-Rajabi and his son, Nidal, received an eviction order for their building in Batn al-Hawa, where five families lived. After a failed appeal, the Enforcement and Collection Authority issued the al-Rajabis a final eviction order on March 20, 2026, while they were celebrating Eid al-Fitr under threat of ballistic missile fire from Iran.
Nidal said the policeman who delivered the order instructed him to remove their furniture and belongings from their home, but when they tried the next day, police barred them from entering. Nidal said they asked for permission to remove their valuables, including gold, jewellery, and cash, but were refused. “We never got the gold or money back,” he said.
The family moved to homes they own in neighbouring al-Bustan, where they face the prospect of displacement once again.
Fakhri Abu Diab, a local activist, told +972 Magazine in 2026 that more than 50 homes in al-Bustan – around half of the community – had been demolished since October 7, 2023. According to OCHA, 15 of those homes were demolished in March–April 2026 alone, forcibly displacing 145 residents, 52 of them children.
The Jerusalem municipality issues demolition orders on the grounds that the houses, built without permits, are illegal. But it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in East Jerusalem and the 60 percent of the West Bank under Israel’s exclusive control (Area C).
“They will not give you a permit to build,” Harbi Al-Rajabi said. “We applied many times, even hired a lawyer and an architect, but they refused to give us a permit.”
The municipality issued demolition orders for the family’s three homes in al-Bustan, giving them two options: pay thousands of dollars for the municipality to demolish their home or do it themselves. Nidal was demolishing one of his properties when Human Rights Watch visited.
“Our life, our presence, is not important to them,” he said. “They view us as an obstacle to their goals.”
In a post on X on February 5, the European Union Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory called on Israel to “immediately halt” forced evictions, demolitions, and settler takeovers of Palestinian homes in Batn al-Hawa and al-Bustan. Despite condemnations, the EU is yet to take measures in its power to put an end to these violations.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, forcible transfers of residents of Occupied Territory are prohibited. The only exception is temporary evacuation of an area if necessary for the security of the population or imperative military reasons.
In its 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Court found Israeli policies and practices, including its forcible evictions and extensive house demolitions in East Jerusalem, contrary to the prohibition of forcible transfer of a protected population under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Court confirmed a transfer is “forcible” not only when it is achieved through physical force, but also when people have no choice but to leave. The ICJ further found that Israel’s practice of demolishing property for lack of a building permit amounts to prohibited discrimination. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it is a war crime for an occupying power to deport or transfer all or part of the population within or outside the occupied territory.
Human Rights Watch has previously found that Israeli authorities intentionally caused the massive, deliberate, and long-term forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian civilians in both Gaza and the West Bank, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. In both cases, senior Israeli officials have declared their aim to expel and keep Palestinians out of parts of Gaza and the West Bank.
The continuing, accelerating violations against Palestinians in East Jerusalem is a direct consequence of Israel’s disregard for international law and impunity for ongoing violations, Human Rights Watch said. Other countries should impose targeted sanctions against individuals and organizations responsible, ensure accountability for war crimes, ban trade with settlements, and suspend preferential trade agreements with Israel.
“Families in Silwan, like countless others across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, are facing an orchestrated, illegal, state-backed effort to force them out of homes where they have lived in for generations,” Sanbar said. “Other countries should do everything in their power to stop it.”
