Jerusalem: Bulldozers in Silwan on the ‘archaeologists’ front'

In the ‘favourable’ climate created by the war, the Israeli authorities yesterday demolished the Al Bustan Centre, in the neighbourhood close to the Suleiman Walls. An area that for years they have wanted to clear of Arab families in order to expand the infrastructure of the tourist park that is bringing to light all the remains of ancient Jewish Jerusalem.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - While air raids and missiles are being fought in Gaza and Lebanon, in the heart of Jerusalem - right in the shadow of Suleiman's walls - the bulldozer front is advancing.

Yesterday morning they went back into action in the Silwan neighbourhood, in East Jerusalem, to demolish, along with a Palestinian house, a symbolic place: the garden equipped for children that has become the heart of Al Bustan, an Arab NGO that for more than fifteen years has been fighting against the expulsion of dozens of families in the name of the expansion of the archaeological park of the ‘City of David’, a project that symbolises the exclusively Jewish identity of Jerusalem carried out by the Israeli nationalist right.

Silwan - an Arab quarter of 50,000 inhabitants, which is also the ancient Siloe mentioned in the Gospels - has long been at the centre of a bitter clash, well known to international diplomacy. Until 1967, when this area was still under Jordanian sovereignty, its appearance was still predominantly that of the garden to which its Arabic name refers.

But between the 1970s and 1980s - when in ‘unified’ Jerusalem, the Israeli administration blocked all planning permits for the construction of new houses in Arab neighbourhoods - the present neighbourhood ‘illegally’ grew up in Silwan. The situation began to change in the early 2000s, however, with excavations in an area that - according to some archaeologists - is said to be that of the first Jerusalem, that of King David 3000 years ago.

From that moment, this area began to attract the attention of Israeli nationalists, determined to unearth everything that speaks of a Jewish presence prior to the time of the Arabs.

With the generous financial support of Sheldon Adelson - an American casino magnate and Netanyahu's (and now through his heirs also Donald Trump's) big backer - the archaeological park ofIr David (the ‘City of David’) was born and is now one of the major attractions for Jewish tourists visiting Jerusalem.

Entrusted for management to Elad - an NGO close to settler circles - it has begun to target the neighbouring houses of the Arabs, claiming Jewish property in court under pre-1948 war presences. But using the same yardstick, many Arabs should also be able to claim what were their homes and were forced to leave because of the conflict.

In the meantime, in Silwan, the archaeological park has continued to grow underground (with a network of archaeological tunnels that literally pass under the homes of the Arabs) and with an option on the sky as well: right here, in fact, the panoramic cable car should have its hub, another contested tourist project that has been looming over Jerusalem for years.

No wonder, then, that the war - with all the cautions that have been dropped - has become an opportunity for new coups in a strategic area like Silwan. In July, the Jerusalem District Court gave the go-ahead for the eviction of 87 families from their homes, a total of 680 people.

And despite appeals by the UN human rights office, bulldozers are proceeding with the demolitions one by one. Yesterday, therefore, it was also the turn of the house in Na'im Roweidi, whose courtyard housed the Al-Bustan Centre for children and the ‘solidarity tent’, for years a protest presidium of the local community against the demand to empty Silwan of its inhabitants.

Also protesting the demolition yesterday was the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem, recalling that the Paris government - along with 21 French local administrations - had supported the Al Bustan Centre with over half a million euros since 2019, to offer ‘more than a thousand children and young people cultural and sporting activities and essential educational and psychological support’. Arab faces and presences for which there is no longer a place inIr David's projects.