8/9/2024–|Last update: 8/9/202404:33 PM (Makkah Time)
The Israeli government is accelerating its plans to empty an East Jerusalem neighborhood of its Palestinian residents, displacing dozens of them this year, according to a report by the digital magazine “972+”.
The magazine reported that on August 27, Israeli bulldozers demolished the home of a citizen named Younis Odeh in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, located south of Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the same day, Israeli forces demolished another home not far from Odeh’s home.
The Israeli magazine explained in a report by the American-Israeli journalist Jessica Buxbaum that the houses in the Al-Bustan neighborhood have always been a target for removal, as the municipal authorities aim to establish an archaeological park in their place.
She pointed out that negotiations took place between residents and the municipality to legalize construction in the neighborhood and divide it into zones, which largely succeeded in preventing the forced displacement of the population, which exceeds 1,500 people.
seize the opportunity of war
Residents believe that the international community’s preoccupation with Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and the possibility of it escalating into a wider regional conflict has made their government feel there is an opportunity to move forward with the demolitions.
The online magazine quoted Fakhri Abu Diab, head of the Al-Bustan Residents Committee, whose home was demolished in February, as saying that the Israelis are exploiting the war and the focus on national security “to implement their own agenda in Jerusalem, which is displacement, increasing settlements, and transforming East Jerusalem from being a Palestinian majority to a Jewish Israeli one.”
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, Israel destroyed 128 Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem between January 1 and August 2 of this year, 19 of which were in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood, displacing 52 of its residents.
Acceleration of settlement
Meanwhile, since October 7, the Israeli government has approved or advanced plans to build thousands of housing units in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem.
In early July, the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli Border Police issued 16 demolition orders for homes in the Bustan neighborhood, threatening more than 120 residents with homelessness. The orders gave residents less than a month to vacate their homes. On August 5, authorities again demolished the home of Odeh’s cousin, Mohammed Abed Odeh.
East Jerusalem
Buxbaum explained in her report that all of East Jerusalem has become a target for the Israeli state and settler groups, and Silwan’s proximity to the Old City makes it a prime target for demolition. She pointed out that the Jerusalem Municipality has been monitoring the orchard for nearly two decades, claiming that the neighborhood was built on the site where the Prophet King David founded his kingdom around 1000 BC.
In 2005, the municipality issued the first demolition orders for buildings in the Al-Bustan neighborhood as part of plans to transform the area into an archaeological park called “The King’s Park.”
Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO that monitors Israeli policy in Jerusalem, described the plan as “settlement under the guise of tourism.”
Although international pressure succeeded in freezing the plan to demolish the homes of Al-Bustan neighborhood after the residents’ negotiations with the municipal authorities, things have changed now, as the municipality has rejected the proposal submitted by the residents.
Since October 7, the municipality has suspended negotiations, Younis Awda told the magazine.