diff --git a/docs/changelog/bugfix.2271.rst b/docs/changelog/bugfix.2271.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..89c0410c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/bugfix.2271.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix ``PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted`` when creating a
+Python 2.x virtualenv on macOS/arm64 - by ``moreati``
diff --git a/src/virtualenv/create/via_global_ref/builtin/cpython/mac_os.py b/src/virtualenv/create/via_global_ref/builtin/cpython/mac_os.py
index 812ec589c..5e06de2be 100644
--- a/src/virtualenv/create/via_global_ref/builtin/cpython/mac_os.py
+++ b/src/virtualenv/create/via_global_ref/builtin/cpython/mac_os.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ def fix_signature(self):
             bak_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
             subprocess.check_call(["cp", exe, bak_dir])
             subprocess.check_call(["mv", bak_dir / exe.name, exe])
-            bak_dir.unlink()
+            bak_dir.rmdir()
             cmd = ["codesign", "-s", "-", "--preserve-metadata=identifier,entitlements,flags,runtime", "-f", exe]
             logging.debug("Changing Signature: %s", cmd)
             subprocess.check_call(cmd)