Israel-Palestine Conflict: Silwan faces forced demolishment

Israeli Settlers are forcing Palestinians settled in Silwan to demolish their own homes. The ones who wont comply with the Israeli settlers will have to pay huge amount of fee.

SILWAN, PALESTINE – Sunday, June 27^th was the deadline issued to 13 families in Silwan who were asked to demolish their own homes. Failing to do so, the Palestinians in Silwan will have to pay around 6000 USD (20,000 NIS).

Israel claimed that the neighborhood in Silwan is illegally built. Hence have asked the Palestinian owners to leave their properties for the Jewish settlers or pay a hefty amount when the Jews come to demolish the houses themselves.

This is the reason a video of young men demolishing their houses with hammers circulated around the web while the young children played in the debris.

This is not the first time it has happened in Palestine. The demolished houses in Silwan are among the 86 other houses from the entire Palestine region which has been marked for taking down.

Though currently, only 13 houses have been brought down. The remaining neighborhood of the 119 families feel unsafe. They expect the same fate with being thrown out of their own houses.

Why is Israel forcing Arabs?

Israel wants to change the area’s demography by building Jewish settlements. They claim that Palestinians living in the neighborhood of Jerusalem – Silwan are settled there illegally. The settled ones cannot fight the claim. The ultimate aim is to make both east and west Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

Hence, to make this outlandish matter seem reasonable they have issued a notice claiming that these lands on which Palestinian reside are illegally occupied. According to the Israel, the Palestinians live on a land which was a garden for Israelite kings thousands of years ago.

The government has hence changed the name of the neighborhood from Silwan’s Al-Bustan neighborhood’s name to Gan Hamelekh (The King’s Garden).

However, the Palestinians deny this claim and say that these lands have been in ownership of their great grandparents and the families have been living here since decades. Some even from before 1948, which was the year Israel occupied Palestine.

Though the Palestinians can take the matter to court considering how it is illegal for Israel to push people out of their own homes. This is not a solution. This is because Palestinians can only issue the notice for consideration in Israeli courts. Unfortunately, according to the Israeli rule, Jewish people can take over any Palestinians’ land while it denies Palestinian people with the same right.

According to Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Saleh Higazi, “this is yet another illustration of Israel’s criminal policy of forced displacement of Palestinians in motion.”