Immediately after occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel annexed about 70,000 dunam (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares) of the West Bank in violation of international law. Parts of this area were added to Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. Silwan’s Palestinian residents suffer from systemic neglect by the municipality: waste left to pile up, unpaved roads and poor street lighting. On top of that, residents also face daily violence at the hands of the police and Israeli settlers, designed to turn their lives into a never-ending nightmare The ethnic cleansing in Silwan is a planned national project that has been pursued for years. The government, planning authorities, the judicial system and settler organizations all work together as a single apparatus to strip Palestinians of their land. Israeli law is built on an organizing principle of advancing and entrenching Jewish supremacy in the area. It allows only Jews to claim property owned in East Jerusalem prior to 1948, while Palestinians are barred from doing so. Israel uses national parks and archaeological sites as a pretext to take over land. These sites are operated in close cooperation with right-wing organizations such as Elad and Ateret Cohanim, whose sole purpose is to Judaize the area. Establishing Jewish enclaves in the heart of the Palestinian community, such as in Sheikh Jarrah, in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and in Silwan, is a strategy of displacement meant to shatter the Palestinian community’s contiguity. While Palestinians suffer neglect and violence, settlers in Silwan, like those living in the City of David or Baten al-Hawa, enjoy modern services and infrastructure, paved access roads and proper street lighting. The expulsion in Silwan is part of a policy of ethnic cleansing throughout the entire West Bank. To the full article >> btselem.org/jerusalem/202603…

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