Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by / Tania Krämer
00:21 Yaqub al-Rajabi / Resident
01:01 Tania Krämer / DW Correspondent | Batn al-Hawa
02:41 Daniel Luria / Ateret Cohanim | Date: March 25, 2026
03:14 Tania Krämer / DW Correspondent | Al-Bustan, Silwan
03:48 Laura Wharton / Jerusalem City Council Member
04:42 Abu Talal Awad / Resident

Script:

00:00
His home is gone. Yaqub al Rajabi and his family were evicted a short while ago from their home in Battan al Hawa in Silwan, a neighborhood in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.  
 
Now, he can only observe from a distance. Israeli settlers have hung flags from his former home. 
 
00:18 
+++ SOT Yaqub al-Rajabi, ARABIC +++  
"This is my home, I was born in it, got married in it, and raised all my children in it. I am speaking not only about myself, but also about my uncles; more than 70 people have lived in this house, not including the Basbous family, who are more than 20 people. How do you think someone would feel when they come and take away your dreams and your home, the home where you were born, got married, and raised your children? Of course, it is deeply painful and suffocating."
 
Israeli settlers have taken over houses here one by one. As soon as a Palestinian family is evicted, Israeli settlers move in.  
 
00:59 
+++ PTC Tania, Batan al-Hawa, ENGLISH +++ 
"Now the Israeli police evicted several Palestinian families this morning. And their homes are now being handed over to Israeli settlers. And this is what is left from the homes of Palestinian families that lived here for decades." 
 
People here have fought eviction orders for decades in Israeli courts. The courts – including the Supreme Court – have ruled in favor of the evictions. 

01:24 
+++ SOT Yaqub al-Rajabi, ARABIC +++ 
"They came in the morning around 8:30 or 9:00, knocked on the doors, emptied the houses of the men, women, and children, and moved them about 500 meters away from the site. What can I tell you. Occupation will not be merciful to you, it will certainly be unjust." 
 
Israeli law works against them. It allows Jewish Israelis to claim property owned by family members prior to the state's establishment in 1948, while denying the same right to Palestinians and their descendants  
 
For many years, settler organizations have laid their claim on the area as it is in proximity to the holy sites in the Old City - the Haram al Sharif or Temple Mount. 
 
One of them is Ateret Cohanim, an organization which aims to expand the presence of Jewish Israelis inside this Palestinian neighborhood.   
 
02:31 
The organization has been helping to evict Palestinian inhabitants of Battan al Hawa or to buy their homes. This is based on a claim that parts of the land belonged to a 19th century Jewish Yemenite Trust, whose community members had to leave in the 1930's.  
 
02:39 
+++ SOT Daniel Luria, Ateret Cohanim, ENGLISH +++
"I feel great about it. I feel great about the fact that the Jews are back after being driven out. One has to always feel something about the family that was living there. But my primary thoughts are always with the Jews driven out in 1938. That's my primary thought. I don't have to think about illegal squatters."
 
And Palestinians are not just facing evictions – they are also facing demolitions.  
 
03:09 
+++ PTC Tania Kraemer in al Bustan, Silwan, ENGLISH +++
"Silwan has long been targeted by settler groups, backed by government policies. Not only are Palestinians evicted from their homes, but there is also widespread demolition like what we see here in an area called Al Bustan. This pathway was leading through the neighborhood – but is now completely gone."
 
Just below Battan al Hawa, some 40 homes and other structures were demolished by the municipality since October 2023 for lack of building permits which Palestinians almost never receive.  
 
03:46 
+++ SOT Laura Wharton, member, Jerusalem City Council, ENGLISH +++
"I think the city is very much influenced by both voices within within city hall and in the city and in the government that want to give preference to planning that will benefit settlers in East Jerusalem, and they're less concerned with seeing to the needs of the Palestinian population, which has actually grown faster since 1967 than the Israeli Jewish population. Um, so there's definitely a bias here. There's definitely a bias here. And it's very, very worrisome to me because the city hall is supposed to serve all the residents, and it does not serve all of them equally."

04:22- 04:31
The area will be cleared to build a contentious archeological-tourism park managed by a settler organization. 
Abu Talal Awad lost parts of his home, and the walls to his property were demolished.  
The bulldozers came after Ramadan ended.  
 
04:40 
+++ SOT Abu Talal Awad, ARABIC +++
"Yesterday there were fences here, a door here, a tree here, an olive tree here, mint planted, now the world is different, it's something else, total ruin today, just ruins you can see."

Affordable housing in occupied East Jerusalem is rare and options few. According to the United Nations, over 200 Palestinian households in East Jerusalem face eviction cases filed against them in the Israeli courts, mostly by settlers. Palestinians hereBat fear, they will be driven out of their city.  

END