In Jabal Mukaber, the homes of the Tawil family (15 people) and the Masrawi family (six people) were demolished. In Beit Hanina, the municipality demolished the home of the Rajabi family (6 people). And in Issawaiyeh, three homes in advanced stages of construction were demolished: one of the Dari family, another belonging to the Nasser family and a third of the Abu Rameileh family.

Today, in the West Bank, a reservoir belonging to the Jabar family was demolished by the Civil Administration, and other buildings are threatened. (This, despite the fact that the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, which already has four large municipal swimming pools, is constructing a water park complete with an artificial lake.)

All this, plus municipal approval for the demolition of 22 homes in the Silwan neighborhood, continued pressure to remove Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah – and the approval by the municipality this week of 54 new housing units for the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement.

Despite claims that Palestinian houses, reservoirs and other buildings are “illegal,” demolition is merely another face of ethnic cleansing, since the Jerusalem municipality, the Ministry of Interior and the Civil Administration of the West Bank all deny Palestinians the right to build homes on their own property. Although the pressure to demolish is constant – the Israeli authorities have demolished 24,000 Palestinian homes since 1967 and new orders are issued daily – the current wave of demolitions can only be explained only on the background of Prime minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington a few weeks ago. For the past decade or so demolition orders can be executed only with the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office; these are not municipal-level decisions, even if the municipality presses for demolitions.

Only one of two explanations for the wave of demolitions is therefore possible. Either Israel has received a green (OK, blinking orange) light that the US will not object vociferously to demolitions – and, in fact, the State Department issued a mild statement describing the demolitions as “unhelpful,” the same term Hillary Clinton used when homes were demolished during her visit to Ramallah. Or Netanyahu, flush from his victory over Obama in the Biden affair, when Congress overwhelmingly supported the Israeli position of building settlements over that of their own Administration, felt free to return to his aggressive policies of “judaization.” Basking in the warm embrace he just received at the White House, Netanyahu knows he has nothing to fear from an increasingly weakened Obama Administration.

It is becoming obvious – if it wasn’t already – that the United States will not, or cannot “deliver” a just peace in Israel-Palestine. Even if an Administration tries to pursue a more critical line towards Israel, its hands will inevitably be tied by Congress. The time has come to pursue a “working around America” strategy, mobilizing the civil societies of Europe, Latin America, Africa and perhaps Asia as well to create a global consensus that either presses for a just solution to the conflict on its own, or prods the US to become constructively involved by virtue of its international isolation. The present wave of demolitions demonstrates the bankruptcy and ineffectiveness of the American “approach.” 24,000 demolitions later (and counting), it is time to look elsewhere.

al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces issued five new house demolition orders in the al-Bustan section of Silwan in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, 5 August, injuring eight Palestinians in the process and seizing the identification card of Musa Odeh, a member of the al-Bustan Committee working to non-violently oppose the demolitions. Authorities also deployed tear gas to prevent residents from confronting the soldiers ordering the demolitions.

The orders augment the 90 demolition orders already standing in Silwan, a densely populated village located on the southeastern slopes of the Old City of Jerusalem. The area, which is located near the biblical site of Siloam and which houses approximately 55,000 residents, was annexed by the state of Israel in 1967; since then, the Municipality of Jerusalem has nearly uniformly refused Palestinian residents building permits to develop the neighborhood, typifying Israeli urban planning policy in East Jerusalem for the past 42 years. In 2004, a directive was issued from the Municipality’s building supervision department to demolish all the homes in Silwan in order to build the “King’s Valley” archaeological park, which is currently under the administration of the fundamentalist settler group Elad. If completed as planned, the Silwan demolitions would constitute the largest scale demolition program in the city of Jerusalem since the leveling of the Maghrebi quarter the night after Israel’s seizure of East Jerusalem in 1967 in order to build today’s Western Wall plaza.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Rabbis for Human Rights-Shomrei Mishpat welcome the Jerusalem Municipality’s announcement that it is considering a freeze on the demolition of 70% of the so-called “illegal” Palestinians homes built without a permit. The Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem himself, Yakir Segev, revealed that in 2008 only 18 permits were issued for building in the Palestinian parts of the city, home to some 270,000 Palestinians. It was the Municipality’s policy of granting so few permits that was driving Palestinians to construct illegally. “To get a construction permit in East Jerusalem you have to be more than a saint,” said Segev. In 2008 the Municipality demolished 87 Palestinian homes, issued 959 demolition orders and collected $3.6 million/€2.5 million in fines from Palestinians, 70% of whom live below the poverty line.

While we welcome any change of policy that reduces home demolitions, we must protest the continuation of that policy, even if parts of it are “frozen.” Twenty thousand (20,000) Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem housing 180,000 people currently have demolition orders. Freezing the demolition of 70% of them means that 6,000 homes would still be slated for demolition. In fact, the Municipality has indicated that it intends to remove completely those 6,000 homes. It seems to believe that offering compensation will legitimize that action.

This is not merely a game of numbers. Lying behind the plan is the intent to leave intact “unauthorized” Palestinian homes in areas of East Jerusalem of little interest to Israel – those on the periphery of the city in particular – while targeting those in areas that Israel wishes to annex. The targeted 30% are therefore in the most politically sensitive areas subject to conflict: the Old City, the Silwan area adjacent to the al-Aqsa mosque (already renamed the “City of David”), the Mount of Olives, Sheikh Jarrah and other strategic locales.

We call on the Jerusalem Municipality and the Government of Israel to end their policy of demolishing Palestinian homes altogether, whether in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza – or inside Israel, where the homes of Palestinian and Bedouin citizens of Israel are also targeted.

For more information, please contact:
Jeff Halper, jeff@icahd.org
Meir Margalit, meir@icahd.org
or Rabbi Arik Ascherman info@rhr.israel.net

There are some people whose faces betray the difficulties they have encountered throughout their lives. Salah Shweiki is one of them. Sitting under the large tent set up in Silwan’s Bustan Quarter, seeking warmth from the wood burning in an old wheelbarrow, Shweiki emanates the aura of an elderly sage. In his 56 years of life, he has seen a lot, maybe too much, but today, he is focused, his face determined and his will iron solid.

Salah Shweiki is one of approximately 1,500 people who are being threatened with expulsion from their homes by the Israeli Jerusalem municipality. According to the eviction order distributed among the residents of the Bustan neighborhood, the demolitions are being carried out under the pretext of lack of proper licensing. Once the homes are torn down, Israel plans to construct a national park in its place, a park, its archeological experts say, is part of the ancient City of David.

Shweiki disregards any and all of these claims, saying the eviction order falls under a larger scheme for Jerusalem, which is to expel as many Palestinians from the city as possible.

Looking at Israel’s recent activity in Jerusalem, I would say Shweiki hit the nail right on the head. Silwan has been plagued with Israeli demolition orders for years, many of this latest group having been handed orders back in 2005. The residents of Silwan say the claim that their homes are built without the proper Israeli licensing is preposterous since most of them were built even before Israel captured the city in 1967.

Shweiki, for example, says he has deeds to his house and land that date back to the British Mandate, which in turn prove that the house was built even before that. “Besides,” he says, “This is Waqf land,” he said, in reference to the Islamic Endowment that handles the administrative affairs of Jerusalem’s Muslim areas. “Wafq lands can neither be bought nor sold,” he adds, thus discrediting any claims that Palestinians sold their lands to settlers who have taken up residence in the heart of Silwan.

If these demolition orders are put into effect, Israel claims it would relocate the residents in other areas of east Jerusalem, mainly in the suburbs of Beit Hanina and Shufat. The people of Silwan’s Bustan neighborhood are not having any of it, though, saying they will fight the Israeli order tooth and nail. “Before they take our land, they will take our lives,” Shweiki says defiantly.

He is not the only one who feels this way. Sitting with him in the tent are at least ten other men all huddled around the fire drinking coffee and tea. One man, Abed Shaloudi, says the residents have set up the Public Committee for the Defense of Silwan’s Bustan Quarter in order to attract as much media and international attention possible to their plight.

Shaloudi himself is no stranger to hardship. He served 10 years in an Israeli prison back in the nineties during which Jewish settlers made a claim on his home. He is still in his house but admits he does not know when the day will come when settlers will force him out with a court order.

Shaloudi’s youth is reflected in his passionate convictions. He says representatives from various media outlets have visited them, emissaries from the Egyptian embassy and European groups have all come to their tent. He has a guest book he asks all to sign as evidence of those who came in solidarity. His hopes are high that their activities will make a difference. “We are planning a march from Sheikh Jarrah to Al Bustan”, he says, referring to another east Jerusalem neighborhood under constant attack and confiscation by Israeli settlers. “We also hope to form a human chain of children around Silwan.”

These are all commendable efforts and could certainly bring attention to the injustice being meted out in Silwan. The question is, will it be enough to halt the demolitions? If history is to be our indicator, this possibility is pretty slim.

Take Sheikh Jarrah for example. For years settlers have taken over houses in this neighborhood claiming to have ownership deeds that date back before 1948. While Israel insists that the Palestinian families whose homes are being taken over have legal recourse in the Israeli court system, this is hardly a comfort. The best they can hope for is a stay of the demolition or eviction order for a few months, at best years, but never a reversal. The latest settler takeover was the home of Um Kamel, who slept in a tent with her elderly husband (who later died after their eviction) while settlers moved into their house.

In Silwan, Jabal Al Mukabber and the Old City, the stories only differ in the details. Claims of original ownership by Jews almost always trumps years of ownership and family inheritance by Palestinians. The problem with this logic is manifold, first and foremost the fact that it is one-sided. As recent as 1948, Palestinians owned and lived in homes in what is now west Jerusalem, passed down to them by their parents and grandparents. The fact that they hold original and authentic documentation to these homes just across the city’s seam line is completely irrelevant to Israel, which disregards any Palestinian claim to what is now Israel.

If only it would stop at that. Israel has systematically refused to accept even the principle of the right of return on the basis that any major influx of Palestinian refugees into Israel would alter the Jewish character of the state. Its aspirations, unfortunately, go even further than Israel proper. In the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Israel has built tens of Jewish settlements in the heart of occupied Palestinian land and has filled them with half a million Jewish settlers. In Jerusalem, the thorniest of all final status issues, Israel continues to impinge on Palestinian land and residency rights in a bid to vacate the city of as many of its Palestinian-Arab residents as possible.

So, it is hard not to agree with Salah Shweiki. When he says the battle is not about Silwan but about Jerusalem, he is right. When he says the issue is not even the buildings, but the land, I can only shake my head in agreement. In Jerusalem, Israel does not hide its intentions. To make it the Jews’ eternal capital, it will have to rid the city of those who dare to defy that assertion. Sadly, as anyone can see, it is doing just that, one house at a time.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Program at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem are protesting what they say are preparations by Israel to demolish scores of Arab homes. The Arab residents accuse the Israelis of trying to push them out of Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim as their capital.

Ayda Risheq prepares her morning meal, and wonders if this will be her last day in this modest, concrete block home she shares with her husband and six children.

She says the demolition could be today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. She does not know. She says crews came to the neighborhood this week, surveyed the area and saw how, with what tools and equipment, they could knock it down.

Risheq’s is one of more than 80 families in this neighborhood near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa mosque whose homes Israel plans to tear down.

Arabs have historically known the neighborhood as Silwan. In the past two decades, Jews have called it the City of David, a part of what thousands of years ago was the ancient Jewish capital.

The neighborhood has become a flashpoint in the fight over Jerusalem. Arab families like Ayda Risheq’s inherited the land and built homes on it mostly in the years after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, when Israel seized the land and annexed East Jerusalem in a move that has never been sanctioned by the international community.

Israeli authorities say the dwellings, which largely went up without building permits, are illegal construction. For the past three years, the municipality has wanted the buildings demolished and turned into a park.

A few meters from the Risheq home, protesters have set up a tent where they have been staging a sit-in for months. Activist Abdel Halim Shaloudi, a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Territory of Silwan, believes the Israelis’ real motive is to drive out the Arabs and make this a Jewish area.

“[There are] 88 houses, which include more than 2,000 people that live in it,” he said. “They want to throw them out because King David was here more than 3,000 years ago and they want to make this King David’s garden, according to their religion.”

As with the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, religion, history, and land are at the heart of this dispute.

For residents like Ayda Risheq, being forced to leave her home is more than a matter of finding a new place to live. She said this is Muslim land and she believes it will always continue to be Muslim land. She said Jewish claims are only an excuse to drive people like her from the land.

Risheq and other residents have been hoping to avert the demolition by applying for building permits and offering to pay fines.

The Jerusalem municipal authorities, however, are showing no signs of budging. A statement by the mayor’s office this week said no new orders have been issued on the matter of the neighborhood and affirmed that the area is not intended for residential development, but rather for use as an open public space.