Politics
the Palestinian neighbourhood subject to ethnic cleansing
Jawad Siam is an activist and a resident of Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem next to the old city. As we sit drinking coffee, he points to a plot of land adjacent to his home.
No justice within the Israeli ‘legal’ system
He tells the Canary:
Settlers took this in June 2017. My father, grandmother and grandfather all lived here in this house. According to my family tree, my family came here at least 400 years ago. We tried to do something. We went to court, but it’s an Israeli court and an Israeli judge. It’s not possible to win any cases today. I had to pay approximately 800,000 Israeli Shekels (£200,000). The Israelis do this with many families in East Jerusalem, not only in Silwan. They claim this land belonged to them in biblical times, 3000 years ago. They create stories, saying that for 100 years Jews have been living in the area, and things like that.
Since ‘Israel’ occupied East Jerusalem, in 1967, Jewish organisations have aimed to establish a Jewish presence in the neighbourhood. In an attempt to get Palestinians to leave their homes, Siam explains that settlers offer Silwan residents large sums of money to sell up. But although people do not have much money, they still do not sell their homes. Siam says he was offered $3m, and his neighbours were offered more, but they refused.
He says:
Any person in Silwan, in a minute, can be a millionaire and leave. But the people are stubborn. An old man here was offered $8m but he wouldn’t sell.
Illegal Jewish settlers call Silwan “Ir David”- the City of David
These settlers are all armed. They are supported by the occupation’s government and belong to the Ir David Foundation- known as Elad.
Elad operates in East Jerusalem, and calls Silwan “Ir David’ , meaning City of David in Hebrew. As well as trying to acquire Palestinian homes, Elad also runs the City of David Archaeological Park.
This major tourist attraction has been built by the occupation in the middle of a residential area in Silwan. It aims to promote the Jewish link to the area, while intentionally erasing Palestinian history, culture, and identity, and the community fabric of Silwan. Many Palestinian homes are being demolished for this park, and international tourism is allowing this to happen.
According to Siam, most houses taken by settlers in Silwan are left empty. Their real project is not about bringing settlers into the neighbourhood, but ethnically cleansing the area of its Palestinian population. He says the occupation dreams of having Jerusalem empty of Palestinians, and are doing their best to connect East and West Jerusalem, while only showing and talking about Jewish heritage.
As well as offering to pay vast sums of money for Palestinian homes, there are also other mechanisms in place, to ensure the population’s displacement from Silwan and other East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Palestinians have their land confiscated and are also evicted from their homes.
Many mechanisms to ‘legally’ displace Palestinians
In 1881 Yemeni Jews came to Palestine. Siam says they were promised they could live in West Jerusalem, but when they arrived they were not welcome. Instead, the people of Silwan, in the Batn al- Hawa area of the neighbourhood, welcomed them.
When the Jews left in 1928, they left the people of Silwan a letter, thanking them for their hospitality. But thanks to an Israeli occupation law, passed in 1970, any property that belonged to Jews before 1948 can now be claimed by settlers. 34 families, around 130 people, are now expecting imminent eviction after the Supreme Court’s recent decision on a decades long legal case, to dismiss an appeal by residents against their forcible displacement.
The Absentee Property Law, enacted by the occupation in 1950, is also used to transfer Palestinian homes to settlers. The occupation’s discriminatory planning policies are also used to drive Palestinians from Silwan. They are denied building permits, and so live with the constant threat of having their homes demolished.
Sari Kronish is an architect and urban planner. She is also Director of the East Jerusalem department of Bimkom, an organisation which works at the intersection of urban planning and human rights.
Planning system used for political gains, to ensure a Palestinian minority and the Judaisation of Jerusalem
She says as a result of ongoing neglect by the Israeli regime, since 1967, there is a drastic need for improvement in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. The planning system is being used as a tool for political ends, to ensure Jerusalem is a Jewish city, the Jewish capital.
The urban planning policy is being used in a way that discriminates to achieve the political ends- to restrict when it comes to Palestinian communities, and provide when it comes to Jewish Israeli communities.
Kronish tells the Canary:
Planning should be free of that, but here there is a demographic driver to the planning policy. That’s what creates the discrimination. And the legal structures and laws in place that have been set up by Israel are allowing for this to happen. It’s completely in contradiction to international law, but in terms of Israeli law there are legal cover ups to everything that’s going on. Nothing is in favour of the Palestinians.
But Siam does not believe the occupation has been successful in its project so far. There are still around 60,000 Palestinians in historic Silwan, and there are a total of 1500 settlers.
He says:
We were supposed to be the minority by now, and Jews the majority. They have everything- the army, the power, and the weapons. Although we’ve tried our best, we haven’t been able to stop them. So the way for us to do this is to stay here. They thought they can easily force Palestinians to leave their land, if not using power, by using money. But this hasn’t happened.
Siam, like most Palestinians, sees the double standards of the West. Hamas is labelled a terrorist movement, But Ben Gvir, and the right-wing in Israel are not. who kill and imprison innocent Palestinians on a daily basis. But while he does not believe in Western governments, be still trusts in the various Western movements that could bring about change.
Siam: “It’s a Western project here”
It’s a Western project here, and we know what kind of democracy Western countries want. We saw it when they talked about the Palestinian free election, which they said was democratic, and was watched by the whole world. But when the results came out, they said it wasn’t the democracy they wanted to see, because Hamas had won.
Palestinians have paid a high price in order to open eyes. It’s not only about the Palestinian cause. A lot of injustice is hidden by the Western governments, inside their countries. We saw it in places such as the UK, with Palestine Action. You cannot express what you want to say. And all the time they’re talking about human rights. But what about the eight million Palestinian refugees all over the world?
Siam helps run Silwan’s Wadi Hilweh Information Centre, which informs about the problems faced by the residents. It also documents the occupation’s human rights violations in the surrounding area. But this centre now has demolition orders, which are expected to be carried out any day now.
Most Palestinians demolish their own buildings to save a demolition fee, which can total the equivalent of £25,000. But Siam has refused.
Another way the occupation makes life as difficult as possible for Palestinians in East Jerusalem is through education. Siam argues the school system for Palestinians here is the worst, not only inside Palestine but also in the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.
This is because Palestinian education in Jerusalem is completely controlled by the Israeli occupation. Palestinians are not allowed to teach their own history or literature to children at school. If schools do not teach the Israeli system, they are closed down.
The Israeli occupation uses education as a tool of oppression in Silwan
Siam says:
Palestinians are the most educated society in the Arabic world. Before the education system was destroyed, Gaza’s school system was much better than here. But Israel does its best to stop Palestinians going to school, and tries to make Palestinians uneducated in East Jerusalem. This is one of the tools they use to turn Palestinians into simple workers, for example, working for them in the Israeli factories.
The occupation has now shut down all UNRWA facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, and Silwan’s UNRWA school closed in June 2025. Most children in Silwan do not have a long term place in a school. Parents struggle to provide education , and around 40% of children have to leave the village to attend school.
Despite the relentless pressure, Siam and those in his community remains defiant. They continue their lives in Silwan, heavily surveillance, threatened with dispossession by settlers, and demolition orders by the occupation. Children go to overcrowded classrooms, not knowing if it will be standing the following day.
Existence is resistance in Palestine, and Silwan is no exception.
Featured image and additional images via the Canary