Under cover of war, Israel is demolishing home after home in Silwan, East Jerusalem
Israeli security forces destroy a house in Silwan, 14 February 2024
Jessica Buxbaum reports in +972 on 6 September 2024:
Younes Odeh and his 3-year-old grandson stand atop the remains of a house in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City. “This is where he slept,” Odeh says, pointing to a pile of broken drywall and crumbled concrete — all that’s left of his grandson’s bedroom.
On Aug. 27, Israeli bulldozers tore apart the house belonging to Odeh’s son, also named Younes, which he built adjacent to his father’s home in 2015. The same day, Israeli forces also demolished another home a few doors down.
Located in a section of Silwan known as Al-Bustan, the houses here have long been targeted for demolition over municipal plans to replace the residential area with an archaeological park. Negotiations between residents and the municipality to legalize building in the area and implement a zoning plan for Al-Bustan have largely forestalled the forcible displacement of the community, which numbers over 1,500 residents. Yet with international attention on Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the possibility of a broader regional escalation, residents believe the Israeli government has sensed an opportunity to push ahead with the demolitions.
“They’re using the war and the fact that all eyes are on national security to implement their own agenda in Jerusalem — which is displacement, increasing settlements, and transforming East Jerusalem from being majority Palestinian into Jewish-Israeli,” says Fakhri Abu Diab, chair of Al-Bustan’s residents’ committee, whose own home was demolished in February.