Jerusalem and returning Jewish awareness to the City of David,”171 whereas Ateret Cohanim specializes in gaining control of assets in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in particular.172 El’ad and Ateret Cohanim operate in Wadi Hilwe and in Batan al-Hawa, respectively, two Palestinian neighborhoods within Silwan. In 1992 an official committee of inquiry known as the Klugman Report investigated the relationship between these colonizer organizations and the Israeli government in East Jerusalem, detailing how the Israeli government transferred lands from Palestinians to colonizers.173 The report found that when El’ad and Ateret Cohanim found desirable properties inhabited by Palestinian families, they turned to the Israeli government for support. Both organizations rely on the Custodian of Absentee Property to confiscate and gain control over Palestinian land. As mentioned in the legal framework, the Absentee Property Law establishes that if the owner of a property in Israel is living in an enemy state, then that property is declared ‘absentee property.’ This was how the Palestinian properties of Silwan were declared absentee by Israel and were passed over to the Custodian of Absentee Property.174 Properties belonging to Palestinians residing outside of Silwan, in the rest of occupied West Bank, have also been declared as absentee property.175 The Custodian then rents these properties to colonizer organizations such as Ateret Cohanim and El’ad, who initiate and facilitate the transfer of JewishIsraelis to live in the confiscated properties.176 In 2015, for example, Ateret Cohanim filed eviction orders against 81 Palestinian families living on 2.6 dunums of land in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan. On 19 October 2015, two Palestinian families were forcibly evicted; police officers were later deployed and the entire area of 171 Moaz Al-Za’tari and Jonathan Molony, “House Demolitions in Silwan: The Judaization of East Jerusalem,” Al-Maqdese for Society Development (MSD), October 2010, 28, available at: http://www. al-maqdese.org/AR/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/demoltion-silwan_English_ayman-final.pdf 172 Id., 17. 173 “Report of the Committee to Examine Buildings in East Jerusalem (the Klugman Report)”, 10 September 1992. An English translation is available in “The Klugman Report – Report of the Committee to Examine Buildings in East Jerusalem”, The Palestine Yearbook of International Law 9, (1996/1997): 417. 174 Peace Now, “The Government Helps the Settlers Take Over a Home in Silwan,” 10 March 2015, available at: http://peacenow.org.il/en/the-government-helps-the-settlers-take-over-a-home-insilwan [accessed 22 September 2017]. 175 Norwegian Refugee Council, “Legal Memo: FAQs on Main Legal Issues in East Jerusalem,” February 2017, available at: https://www.nrc.no/globalassets/pdf/legal-opinions/faqs_ej_memo.pdf 176 Meron Rapoport, Shady Dealings in Silwan,” (Jerusalem: Ir Amim, 2009), 13 [hereinafter Rapoport, “Shady Dealings in Silwan”]. 64