Israeli court advances eviction of Palestinians for Jewish settlers in Silwan The Jerusalem Governorate says Israel’s High Court has issued rulings in two of four petitions filed by Palestinian residents of Batn al-Hawa in Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, moving closer to their forced eviction in favour of the Israeli settler organisation Ateret Cohanim. In a statement released on Monday, the governorate said the court upheld earlier decisions ordering the removal of families from their homes. The cases decided include the Abdel Fattah al-Rajabi family, which involves two apartments housing two families and 16 people, and the case of Yaqoub and Nidal al-Rajabi and their brothers, covering 11 apartments where more than 100 Palestinians live. The court has yet to rule on two remaining files. These concern the Youssef al-Basbous family, which includes four apartments housing around 20 people, and the Zuhair al-Rajabi family, involving seven apartments with approximately 50 residents. The Jerusalem Governorate condemned the rulings, saying Israeli authorities are using settler organisations and it called racist courts to enforce expulsions in occupied East Jerusalem. It said the measures violate international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute, and form part of an ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing through forced displacement. Officials warned that the campaign aims to empty Jerusalem of its Palestinian population and replace them with settlers, accelerating Israel’s efforts to consolidate control over the city through dispossession and demographic engineering.