On May 26, 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by the Shehadeh family in the Batn al-Hawa section of Silwan in East Jerusalem—paving the way for the family of 35 to be forcibly expelled from their home of decades (see Forcible Home Expulsions).1

In April, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg dismissed the family’s appeal against the Jerusalem District Court’s 2022 ruling to expel them. Sohlberg ruled that the family must vacate the building by June 1, 2024 and pay NIS 5,000 ($1,340) in legal fees to Ateret Cohanim, the settler group suing the family over the property’s alleged ownership.

In response to the ruling, the family filed a motion to annul the decision, arguing they weren’t informed of Ateret Cohanim’s ongoing requests to expedite the ruling. Sohlberg initially decided to delay his decision on the family’s case until Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, under Supreme Court order, gave her opinion on the land’s status as it relates to Ottoman law. According to the family’s lawyer, Yazeed Kawar, the settler group was filing motions requesting that Sohlberg not wait for the attorney general’s opinion to give his decision. The family was not informed of these moves at the time.2

Ultimately, Sohlberg denied the family’s motion on May 15, 2024, in response to which the family filed a petition to the Supreme Court on the grounds that Sohlberg violated legal protocol.3 The court subsequently dismissed the petition. The next and final step is for an expulsion notice to be delivered to the family.

The Shehadeh family bought the then-empty plot of land in Batn al-Hawa in 1966 from landowner al-Yamani. Because their purchase predates Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, their ownership documents were issued by a Jordanian court. Ibrahim Shehadeh, 52, told Jerusalem Story his father began building the house in 1966. However, construction was halted when the war broke out in 1967. Due to the family’s economic situation, the house was built in stages over the following years.

“We have owned this house even before the existence of Israel in East Jerusalem,” Shehadeh told Jerusalem Story.4 “This is a huge scandal for the State of Israel, which claims to be democratic and to have a transparent legal system.”

Shehadeh, one of seven sons, said four of his brothers live in the building with their families, while he moved out when his family got too big.

“I was born in that house, raised in that house, and got married in that house,” Shehadeh said. “We have always occupied the structure. We've always been there.”

When he met with Jerusalem Story, he refused to discuss what he would do if the court ordered an expulsion notice. “We are the rightful owners,” he insists. Since learning of the Supreme Court’s decision, he has not been available for comment.

At the time of writing, the family had not received a final expulsion notice from the Execution System within Israel’s Law Enforcement and Collection System Authority. This office handles the execution of such orders. According to Kawar, when the family receives the notice, they will ask the office not to execute it.

“Maybe they can buy some more time and ask for another motion,” Hagit Ofran, codirector of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Project, said during the Israeli activist group’s emergency Zoom meeting on the situation in Batn al-Hawa.5 “If there is no political intervention, they might, in a few weeks, be kicked out of their house.”

Kawar added that Ateret Cohanim may intervene as they’ve previously done.

“We expect that the settlers will address the Execution Office and ask them to execute the evacuation order,” Kawar said during the meeting.6

Zoheir Rajabeh, a Batn al-Hawa resident whose family home has also long been under threat of expulsion, told Jerusalem Story that his family lives in constant fear.

“The family is absolutely terrified all the time,” Rajabeh told Jerusalem Story.7 “The settlers might just come attack them and take the building by force without any police with them or without any legal process that would at least allow safety for the family to evacuate.”

Rajabeh, who oversees the Batn al-Hawa committee, said this ruling sets a precedent for the 87 other families also facing expulsion in the Batn al-Hawa area of Silwan.

“Once this evacuation happens, it is like a domino, and many more expulsions will happen,” Rajabeh said. “It’s a case of fear, it’s a case of devastation, and everybody knows that today the legal situation of protecting people to stay in their places is more difficult and more dangerous.”