هذا التقرير متاح أيضًا بـ العربية
The occupation authorities are pressing ahead on every front in occupied Jerusalem, seeking to settle a range of issues, particularly those concerning its population. The Palestinian presence in the occupied city is one obstacle to establishing a settler majority. The occupation’s various bodies are therefore working to intensify settlement activity as close as possible to the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque. In recent years, the targeting of Silwan, which protects Jerusalem and shields the Old City from the south, has escalated.
The town lies just a few metres from the southern wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Its strategic location and proximity to Al-Aqsa have made it the target of relentless attempts in recent years to displace its residents and turn it into an area reserved for settlers. The occupation is intensifying its efforts to expel residents and demolish their homes as part of a systematic plan to empty a central part of Jerusalem of its inhabitants. This is bound up with an aggressive demographic engineering project encompassing the land, the spaces beneath it and everything built above it.
Silwan’s roots
Over the years, the occupation authorities have drastically reduced the town’s geographical extent. It once reached what is now known as the Khan al-Ahmar area, between Jerusalem and Jericho. According to sources, this area was called “Khan al-Salawneh”, but the occupation confiscated most of its land, leaving Silwan as we know it today.
Silwan now covers about 5,640 dunams and comprises 12 neighbourhoods. Data puts its population at about 60,000 Palestinians. Over the years, the occupation’s various bodies have established 78 settlement outposts in the town, housing about 2,300 settlers.
The town occupies a strategic site, forming a natural extension of the southern side of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City. It is bordered by Al-Aqsa Mosque to the north, the southern slopes of Mount “Nabi Dawud” to the west, the northern slopes of Jabal al-Mukabber to the south, and the villages of Abu Dis and al-Eizariya and the Mount of Olives to the east. It is built across a series of slopes separated by valleys, most notably Wadi Hilweh, Wadi al-Rababa and Wadi Yasul, which also give their names to several neighbourhoods.
Excavations that falsify the narrative
The occupation’s attempts to seize occupied Jerusalem are not confined to a single neighbourhood or town. Using all the tools and resources at its disposal, it seeks to make Jerusalem Jewish in both character and population. It continues to target Palestinian residents and seeks to drive them out as part of a direct effort to change the occupied city’s demographic balance. Given Silwan’s importance and proximity to Al-Aqsa Mosque, numerous assaults have targeted its land, the spaces beneath it and the Palestinian population itself.
Excavations in Silwan began in the second half of the 19th century and escalated dramatically after the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Since then, the occupation authorities have pursued excavations aimed at Judaizing the archaeological heritage, digging beneath Palestinian homes and facilities in the town. The excavations have intensified the assault on Silwan, with many excavated spaces converted into halls, synagogues and similar facilities. They also threaten the Palestinian homes above them: digging hollows out the ground beneath the buildings, causing cracks and partial collapses, particularly in winter.
Among the most prominent underground passages beneath the town is the Silwan Cave Tunnel. It begins at the historic Spring of Silwan, also known as Umm al-Daraj, and runs for 533 metres through rock beneath the ground. It ends at, and empties directly into, the historic Pool of Silwan beside Al-Ain Mosque, south-west of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The new Silwan Tunnel, uncovered in 2006 near the Spring of Silwan, reaches a depth of 12 metres and connects several excavations. The Wadi Hilweh Tunnel begins in the neighbourhood of the same name and heads towards central Silwan, passing beneath dozens of homes and causing dangerous cracks in Palestinian houses.
The latest and largest excavation is the “Pilgrims’ Road” tunnel, work on which began in 2019. It stretches from the Pool of Silwan, passes beneath Palestinian homes in Wadi Hilweh and reaches the southern edge of the Al-Buraq Wall plaza, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque. On 15 September 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurated the tunnel alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to Netanyahu’s office: “One of the most prominent stops during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit was the joint visit … to the City of David in Jerusalem, where the historic Pilgrims’ Road from the Pool of Silwan to the Temple was unveiled for the first time. This was an event of historical and cultural significance for the Jewish people.”
Rubio wrote in a post on X: “The Pilgrimage Road is a deep cultural and historical link between the United States and Israel. It is a powerful reminder of the Judeo-Christian values that inspired America’s Founding Fathers.” According to the Israeli left-wing movement Peace Now, the tunnel is 600 metres long and was excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority in partnership with the settler organisation Elad, with government funding of nearly 50 million shekels, or about $15 million.
Silwan’s homes face demolition and gradual takeover
Since 1999, attacks on Palestinian homes in Silwan have steadily escalated, coinciding with the occupation authorities allowing settler associations to establish outposts inside the town. According to local Palestinian sources, the number of outposts has reached about 78 during an offensive spanning more than 25 years. These projects are run with direct support from the occupation government or through its settler associations, principally Elad and Ateret Cohanim.
In 2021, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem rejected all the planning proposals submitted by residents of the Bustan neighbourhood, even though some allocated space for public facilities such as parks and schools. According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, residents have been trying since 2004 to persuade the municipality not to demolish the neighbourhood under the pretext of establishing the “King’s Garden” in its place. These attempts failed because the municipality insisted on proceeding. It has since lifted the freeze on demolition orders, and home demolitions have steadily escalated.
Amid the widening demolitions targeting the town, a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that the occupation authorities demolished about 2,307 structures in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem between January 2011 and early January 2026.
During this period, Silwan recorded the second-highest number of demolitions, affecting about 317 structures and homes and reflecting the scale of the targeting it faces. These demolitions form part of an escalating effort to push Palestinians to leave and make way for an expanded settler presence and a larger settler population.
Taken together, these policies show that the occupation authorities are seeking an abrupt shift in Silwan’s demographic balance. Six neighbourhoods face the prospect of complete displacement, including Wadi Hilweh, Wadi al-Rababa, Batn al-Hawa, Ein al-Lawza and Wadi Yasul, as part of an effort to secure demographic dominance in occupied Jerusalem.
Although the occupation authorities have delayed the wholesale displacement of these neighbourhoods, they continue to pursue individual expulsions and systematically target Palestinian homes in the town. The occupation’s various bodies have stepped up orders to seize Palestinian homes, claiming that the town’s land belonged to Jews before 1948.
Given the occupation courts’ bias towards settler associations, legal proceedings amount to no more than a final attempt by Palestinians to delay settlers’ takeover of their homes. Recent decisions to seize Palestinian homes in Silwan include the following:
- On 24 June 2025, Jerusalem sources revealed that occupation courts had issued eviction orders covering several Palestinian homes in Batn al-Hawa, including three belonging to the Rajabi family, one to the Shweiki family and another to the Odeh family.
- On 14 December 2025, the occupation authorities forced a Palestinian family to vacate their homes in Batn al-Hawa. On 18 December 2025, the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority changed the locks on the three homes and handed the keys to the settler association “Ateret Cohanim”. The association began renovating them in preparation for handing them over to three settler families who will live in the neighbourhood under the occupation’s protection.
- On 29 December 2025, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a final ruling ordering the eviction of residents from 13 Palestinian homes in Batn al-Hawa in favour of the settler association “Ateret Cohanim”. The rulings concern Abdel Fattah Rajabi’s family, whose case involves two housing units occupied by two families totalling 16 people, and Yacoub and Nidal Rajabi and their brothers, whose case involves 11 housing units inhabited by more than 100 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.
- On 26 March 2026, dozens of settlers seized these apartments under heavy protection from occupation forces. Many of the homeowners said that they and their families had lived there since before the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967
Strategic objectives: geography and demography
Successive waves of home demolitions, the escalating targeting of Silwan and the increased issuing of demolition notices show that these are not isolated measures. They form part of a broader plan concerning occupied Jerusalem’s identity: decisive policies aimed at reshaping the city, erasing its Arab Palestinian character and replacing it with a biblical settler identity.
This is particularly evident in the escalating targeting of the Bustan neighbourhood. There, the occupation municipality does not invoke property disputes, nor has there been a settler presence to expand or build upon. The only apparent “pretext” for displacing its residents therefore rests on a biblical narrative that the occupation’s various bodies seek to impose forcibly on the geography of Jerusalem and Palestine more broadly. The municipality claims that the neighbourhood’s land was once the “Garden of King David” and declares its intention to “restore” it to that alleged origin, alongside the broader Judaization project in Wadi Hilweh known as the “City of David.”
Alongside the religious dimension of these replacement policies, demographic motives are also prominent in the targeting of Silwan. The town is being turned into a model for policies of displacement and settler replacement that can be repeated elsewhere. The occupation’s main objectives in pursuing these operations are:
- Geographical control around Al-Aqsa Mosque: tightening the cordon around the Old City, escalating aggression against the mosque and increasing the number of people who storm it.
- Creating a settlement belt: linking surrounding settlements and increasing the number of outposts in Silwan as part of an effort to establish a Jewish majority in the town, separate Palestinian neighbourhoods and prevent any future geographical continuity.
- Changing the demographic identity: reducing the Palestinian presence in the town through demolitions, ID revocations, economic pressure and intensive settlement.
- Imposing a historical and religious narrative: continuing work on the “City of David” project and seeking to establish the “King’s Garden.”
- Stifling Palestinian urban expansion: maintaining a permanent occupation policy that bars Palestinians from building, reduces their chances of obtaining permits and demolishes homes built without them. These policies worsen Palestinians’ housing difficulties because of limited space and high construction costs.
Silwan’s place in the wider picture
The far-right government is racing against time to impose more facts on the ground. Despite Israel’s preoccupation with several wars, from the genocidal war on Gaza to the war with Iran, the bodies pursuing its Judaization policies have not halted their aggression. Instead, they have rushed to issue new settlement tenders, paved the way for legalising more outposts and announced major settlement projects, including the “Greater Jerusalem” plans and the expansion of the settlement of Maale Adumim.
These and other projects aim to annex as much land as possible with as few Palestinians as possible, in what can be described as a “reconfiguration of the geographic and demographic space” in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem. They take advantage of Silwan’s important location, its proximity to Al-Aqsa Mosque and its connection to religious narratives to achieve a range of goals.
Alongside demolitions, seizures and excavations, settlement projects are being implemented in Silwan to strengthen the settler presence through infrastructure and tourism schemes that serve the settler narrative. Among the most prominent is the suspended aerial light rail project, the “cable car”, which aims to link the western part of the occupied city to the area around the Old City via Silwan. The project is closely connected to the escalating aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque and links the various Judaization projects.
Another is the “suspension bridge” project in Wadi al-Rababa. It forms a stop on a network of tourist routes that is reshaping the town’s urban landscape and connecting its settlement outposts, alongside the other projects discussed here.
Silwan exemplifies Zionist aggression against occupied Jerusalem: an assault that combines settlement policies, biblical narratives and major demographic objectives in a broader effort to reshape the city’s geography, demography and identity.
Today, Silwan is at the heart of an existential battle, both as Al-Aqsa Mosque’s southern line of defence and as a focal point of the continuing struggle over identity and place. Despite the escalation of the occupation’s plans and the growing reach of its various bodies, residents’ steadfastness remains the decisive factor in obstructing this project and preserving Jerusalem’s Arab Palestinian character.