Dozens of Palestinian families in Silwan will be forced to pack up and leave their homes in the coming weeks, after the Supreme Court upheld a new batch of eviction orders in the East Jerusalem neighborhood.

Late last month, Supreme Court Judge Alex Stein dismissed an appeal by residents against the eviction of 32 households in Batn al-Hawa, an area of Silwan located atop a hill just south of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The families, totalling over 130 people, are sitting tight before the final eviction orders are issued. They expect authorities to come and forcibly remove them from their homes by mid-March or sooner.

“It’s final, absolutely final,” Zuhair Rajabi, one of the residents facing eviction, told The Times of Israel on Thursday. “There is no chance. We are trying to do something [to prevent the evictions], but it’ll probably be difficult, especially with this government.”

It was the latest blow to Palestinians in the neighborhood, who have been gradually pushed out through legal means, making way for Jewish tenants linked to the right-wing Ateret Cohanim organization, which seeks to strengthen the Jewish foothold in Arab areas of East Jerusalem.

Daniel Luria, the executive director of the group, called Palestinians in Silwan “illegal squatters” and said that he was working to rectify a historical injustice.

Rajabi, a father of........

© The Times of Israel