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The Story Of Silwan

By Michael Galvin

09 July, 2009
Countercurrents.org

As a visitor in a new place, it is rare to arrive and so quickly notice the strife and conflict tearing at the social fabric. In Jerusalem these signs are unmistakable and, despite the Israeli government's attempts to maintain an illusion of Western normality, everywhere. Graffiti on the walls of the Old City, the omnipresence of armed soldiers, checkpoints, metal detectors and security cameras (500 in East Jerusalem alone), "Free Palestine" t-shirts sold on the street next to "Israeli Army" and "Don't worry America, Israel is behind you" t-shirts, and divisions between Arab and Jewish Old City neighborhoods delineated by provocative groupings of Israeli flags with armed soldiers standing guard by newer and more expensive looking Jewish-quarter shops.

However, the strife goes far deeper than superficial manifestations of graffiti, flags, or conflicting messages on tourist crap sold by the same vendors at the same prices. These objects simply reflect the greater conflict over land and housing. According to a UN report, almost 1/3 of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been built without a permit thus putting 60,000 Palestinians at risk of having their houses demolished by Israeli authorities. Palestinians wanting to build a home can only seek permission for a small zone comprising only 13% of East Jerusalem and already densely populated. The result is that at least 28% of all homes have been constructed illegally and out of the 1/4 million Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, 60,000 risk having their homes demolished.

One of the neighborhoods where this is hitting the hardest is Silwan, an Arab neighborhood of 45,000 on a steep hillside just south of the Old City. Entering the neighborhood, one is struck by the sudden dearth of tourists. Jewish worshipers and tourists, which seemed to swarm everywhere just 50 meters back inside the Old City and its heavily secured Western Wall, are suddenly gone, as are stores and well-paved roads. Glass and trash cover the streets, and empty lots filled with rubble abound as do occasional wary glances toward our presence in an area with no postcards to buy. Even the transportation for people here is different and while the buses that do run do not appear to be financed by the Israeli state, it is clear that the armored SUVs of Israeli soldiers and police that roam around the neighborhood are. After reaching the bottom of the hill and looking back up to see the shining new limestone apartments of the chic Jewish quarter next to the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, it's almost as if we're in one country looking up at another. Stopping in a small grocery store, I brokenly ask the owner if there's a cafe nearby. He tells me no cafe, here there is only intifada. I ask why and he says there has not been a cafe in the neighborhood for a couple years.

Later I talk to one of the leaders of the International Solidarity Movement who tells me that while there are perhaps no cafes in that part of Silwan, there are cafes in other parts of the neighborhood. He also tells me about the 1500 persons (88 families) currently threatened with the demolition of their houses in Silwan. While the residents have been proposed government subsidies to build elsewhere, they must take the money to build outside Jerusalem. "The Silent Transfer" as it is known. Slowly the neighborhood will be "Judaized" so as to have Jewish neighborhoods surrounding Jerusalem on all sides. How could the Palestinians possibly make the case for an East Jerusalem capital if that were the case?

The signs of this Israeli invasion were evident in the neighborhood as occupied houses hosted over-sized Israeli flags and bars on all doors and windows. One apartment building in the middle of the neighborhood had an Israeli flag going all the way down the whole facade of the 5-story building, and was visible from large parts of the valley. I tried to ask a man on the street about this building and he looked away and kept walking.

Yet this sort of provocation by settler groups is just the beginning. The government put up signs leading to Silwan with the two thousand year old Hebrew name "City of David" instead of Silwan (even in Arabic) and has facilitated the activities and presence of far-right Jewish organizations like ElAd (the acronym for City of David in Hebrew) since Israel gained control over East Jerusalem in 1967. ElAd, which the mainstream Israeli daily Ha'aretz says promotes the "Judaization" of East Jerusalem, works to expel Arab residents of Silwan by declaring their homes and businesses "absentee properties," throwing out inhabitants that have been living there for decades. ElAd also works to increase Jewish settlement in Silwan, where settlement expansion has increased significantly since 1991, and has signed agreements with the Jewish National Fund allowing the settler group to engage in construction without going through the normal legal process. In 2008, the Jerusalem municipality even began the process of approving a plan for a new housing complex, including a synagogue, in the heart of Silwan.

In its "battle for the holy basin," ElAd's credo is to operate, "to strengthen the link of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, and for the continuation of the return of the Jewish people to visit and live in the City of David." Since April 2006, ElAd has taken over about 15 apartments in three different buildings through legal acquisition or violent invasion, including the 5-story building draped with the Israeli flag in the middle of the neighborhood. After ElAd succeeded in taking over the highest point in the neighborhood, and the point nearest to the Old City, a visitor center was built called The City of David-Jerusalem Wall National Park. When I visited the center there were flat-screen TVs boasting 3D movies, segway tours, and an "exciting walk in the waters of Hezekiah tunnel" in the "City of David: Ancient Jerusalem." While my attention was originally drawn to yet another example of Israel's heritage from 2000 years ago and before but not since, I was distracted by three 20-something girls in jeans and t-shirts sitting next to me with rifles. I asked them why they were holding those large weapons when there were armed soldiers and police all around. They said they were accompanying a tour and that "when in Arab territory an armed guard is needed at all times." But you don't even go into the Palestinian neighborhood itself, I responded. "It's the rule for protection in Arab territory... it's the same for sites like Masada." I stopped badgering them when they asked what tour group I was with. But when the group got up to leave on its 30-meter trek down the hill to visit the tunnels after paying the five dollar ticket price directly into ElAd's coffers, I couldn't help but think that it seemed like the principal effect of the armed-with-rifles show of force was to instill fear into the tour groups of teenage kids more than anything else. The militarization, invasion, demolition, and co-optation at the root of the conflict paradoxically remain the prime means of dealing with the consequences, once again reproducing themselves for the next generation.



Originally from St. Louis, MO, Michael Galvin attended a liberal arts college in Minnesota from 2004-2008 where he worked with groups mobilizing against the Iraq War.  He is currently in the West Bank working with organizations against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  For more information contact [email protected] or go to www.mdgalvin.wordpress.com .

 


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