A few weeks ago, my daughter Ericka, my partner Karen, and I returned from our first trip to Palestine. The most exciting experience for me was the day we visited Silwan and learned about the extraordinary community organizing that has been happening there.
Jawad Siyam is the director of Silwan's Wadi Hilweh Information Center. Silwan, he explained to us, has a history that stretches back to the time of the Canaanites. More recently, it was for many centuries thriving Palestinian farmland, a main source of food for the city of Jerusalem. Currently the history and the future of Silwan are under siege: Israel has given total power to a private company, Elad Association, which has been systematically demolishing the neighborhood and building an archeological park instead.
In the face of that threat, the people of Silwan have joined together to create the information center, a women's crafts collective that is producing extraordinary needlework and mosaics, a sports field and cultural café, and a playground.
There are two glass cases in the entryway to the information center: One is filled with artwork from the women's collective, the other with teargas canisters and other ammunition that has been aimed at the center. We watched a video featuring the voices of youth from the neighborhood. Jawad showed us the house next door, which belonged to his grandparents. Now there are a dozen Israeli flags hanging across the front. As we watched, an armored car pulled into the gate. It is illegal to fly a Palestinian flag in East Jerusalem, so the center flies a "We Love Silwan" flag instead.
At the crafts collective, the women showed us how to make mosaics and pulled out dozens of examples of the needlework they are working on. At the cultural café, we drank coffee and talked with the staff, all of whom have been political prisoners in Israeli prisons. They told us how many kids from the neighborhood were playing soccer and volleyball on the sports field, and the plans for cultural events at the café.
We met many amazingly resilient and brilliant people throughout Palestine, but Silwan was special: It seemed so full of hope in a situation that is often filled with losses and desperation. Since we returned to the United States, I have told all my friends, everyone I know, about Silwan.
This morning, one of those friends sent me a URL. "Isn't this the neighborhood you told me about?" she asked. I opened the link to see a news article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: On Feb. 13, the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority bulldozed the cultural café, destroying it completely, and seriously damaged the sports field. "This was the only place in the area to meet," Jawad lamented, "to sit together. It was the only place for children in Silwan."
How could this happen? The Israeli government claims that Silwan is the site of the biblical "City of David." Although this finding is debated by archeologists, the Israelis have built the City of David National Park on the site, destroying dozens of Palestinian homes, a school and a mosque -- either through direct demolition, seizure and re-occupation by Israeli settlers, or by digging under the foundations until the buildings collapse.
On Sunday, Feb. 12, the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved plans for a visitors compound, vastly expanding the park. By Monday morning, the cultural café was rubble.
Archeology seems like a neutral science. Who, after all, could argue with the importance of understanding the past? But in occupied Palestine, like in Arizona, history and its uses are highly politicized. According to Raphael Greenberg of Tel Aviv University and Emek Shaveh, an organization of progressive Israeli archeologists, "The sanctity of the City of David is newly manufactured, and is a crude amalgam of history, nationalism, and quasi-religious pilgrimage." Nonetheless, a half million tourists come to the park every year. They watch a 3D movie that ignores the Palestinian history on the land, and walk down paths surrounded by high walls so they cannot see the Palestinian homes on every side. The park holds events like the "City of David segway tour" and "Jerusalem paintball."
This is one more way to push Palestinians out of East Jerusalem. It feels particularly immediate and urgent to me because I was there just a few weeks ago, drinking coffee. But, in fact, it is a crisis to which all of us in the United States are closely connected. Many of the tourists uncritically accepting the "official story" in the 3D movie are from the United States; their financial and political support is critical to Israeli expansionism. Many of the settlers who are occupying Palestinian homes and living in the settlements in East Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank are from the United States. Virtually all the Palestinians we spoke with asked us to campaign against the Jewish Defense League and other U.S. organizations that recruit, send, and support settlers in occupied Palestine. And, of course, without U.S. economic, political, and military support, none of this would be happening.
The Silwan community is determined to rebuild the cultural café by March 21, when Mother's Day is celebrated in Arab countries. Please, do everything you can to express your solidarity with the people of Silwan: Contact the Israeli embassy and your congressional representatives, and give generously to efforts to rebuild. For more information on Silwan and how you can be in solidarity, contact the Middle East Children's Alliance.
We love you, Silwan!
This week's "Palestinians, what Palestinians" award winner by a head.
"A country which is open to all peoples, in which all religions receive equal rights and in which each citizen receives services allowing healthier and longer life. "
Unless, of course, they want a building permit and happen to be Palestinian or get arrested and are held without charges for months on end.
Such a motivated bureaucracy. I'm not all that impressed with the appeals process though.
That being said, I am surprised that in the interest of balance you didn't mention this: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/waqf-temple-mount-excavation-damaged-archaeological-relics-1.362332
Has it occurred to you that the politicization of Archeology is not a one way street? In this very article you write "According to Raphael Greenberg of Tel Aviv University and Emek Shaveh, an organization of progressive Israeli archeologists." Don't you find it odd that there would be "progressive archeologists." I am not even sure how that makes sense logically.
Did you ask the archeologists who disagree with Emek Shaveh for their evidence? Did you compare the arguments and decide which held more scientific weight? Or did you just choose the side that met best your preconceived political notions?
This is not archaeology, this is a crime against everything archaeology is supposed to be.
http://israelsmessiah.com/biblical_archaeology/moslem_destruction.htm
I know a little more about disputes and argument and I suspect that if these archaeologists were here they would have some sort of defense or denial. My criticism of this article is that it appears to be doing exactly what it decries, using archaeology for political purposes. You might be right that one side is clearly right and the other clearly wrong in this case, but I am unlikely to moved to support a cause based on an article that comes across as hypocritical in this way.
Justice will prevail, evil will be punished, what goes around comes around.
The City of David is one of the most interesting destinations in all of Jerusalem and it is a shame that the Arabs and their supporters are standing in the way of the proper archaeological excavation and development of this area.
There may be an argument about the interpretation of the archaeological finds, but there is no question whatsoever that the excavations are extremely significant or that they are carried out according to the strictest archaeological standards.
I was in Silwan yesterday and I can assure you that the kids are still playing soccer on a field, backyards, rooftops with no one getting in their way.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center is a questionable outfit wholly dependent on money from sponsors which pay them to put out anti-Israeli propaganda.
And what YOU'RE leaving out is the fact that it is all but impossible for a Palestinian to get ANY planning permission in Israel and that annexation is illegal under international law.
The planning laws of Israel are specifically designed to "Judaize" the entire land at the cost of Palestinians. You also fail to mention the Jewish homes and parks built on land that had been Palestinian before the Jewish state forced them from it in 1948. Also the land seizures of the JNF. Just making something legal doesn't make it moral. You also miss out the damage the digging has done to the area, roads crumbling, shools being damages (with CHILDREN inside) etc.
As for Silwan being a "proper archaeological excavation." You must be using the Ahnenerbe definition of "proper" there. The Silwan pit is not an excavation, its an exercise in Israeli and Settler expansion. There is no evidence that the finds are from the mythical City of David but plenty of wild claims. A Byzantine water pit was even presented as the pit Jeremiah was thrown into! ABSURD!
You can argue with the interpretation used by Elad, but again, there is little question that this is a major archaeological site that some people want to prevent from being properly explored based on the demands of squatters who have no claim to the land whatsoever. In addition there is plenty of support for the position that this is in fact the location of the City of David. There are some that dispute this among the Palestinians and their supporters, but then again there are some that dispute that Jews have any history in the Holy Land.
Bull. Members of the Invented Nation are under orders from the "Palestinian Authority" and Hamas not to "cooperate" with the Jerusalem City Council -- or else. They do not apply for permits -- except where they are absolutely sure a permit will be refused. Jerusalem development plans are in the public domain. Any legal application that complies with the plans will be approved, whoever is the applicant. Applications which are rejected can be appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court. But that's not what the leaders of the Invented Nation want -- the word "legality" does not exist in Arabic; "provocation" is what they want.
but anyway- the palis do tell their history in that place but somehow forget to tell about the jews lived there and who forced to leave in the 1930s'. by who?
Israel and all of the world is more interested in the king David town and there is no doubt about the fact that this is the place.
the today jews bought the houses they live in and in Israel, in the capital- Jarusalem, there won't be a place where jews can't live in. that just not gonna be.
and there are much better ways to take lands from the Palis... like 1948 war. that not what Israel wants. do you want that?
As for no doubt - that's so absurd I'd laugh if people weren't losing their homes to a viscous and expansionist bunch of trowel wielding stormtroopers. As of yet there has been NO evidence published that even comes close to hinting at the presence of some David figure, the closest they've got is a wall. A WALL! As if nobody else ever built a wall.
Oh wait a minute, maybe Dave used the same planning rules as modern Israel and effectively banned anyone else from building even a dog house.
silwan had jews in it until the arabs decided other in 1930s'... now the jews came back and the arabs can live with that or fight and lose. no one as to leave his house- the talking houses built on state lands and the builders got fair offers for alternative land.
but Israel can decide if they want some new houses or a park for king Dave... history shows that Dave's memory is gonna last longer.
and I talk about my old Dave for 3000 years... you had plenty of time to come and argue with me about him but chosen to take him as a role model (and as great father of crist) and now you come and say no... so the burden of proof is on you.
in Jerusalem at 1948 there was about 60k arabs... now only in silwan, a little village there are 70 K... they want to build 2-3 floors houses while the jews build 20 floors. they wan't to build where ever they want but want Israel to suply the water and sewerage. they also don't care that its flow down to the dead sea couse they know you'll back them. but I don't care- they have land not into the center of the city but outside and they can take them. I also want some lands in Manhattan...
well... I don't dance by that flute. did you ask yourself why many Palis want to become residents in Jerusalem... as second class citisens, at aparthiad state?
and Getto- the opposite- arabs can live all over the city.
there is very very vry few beduin villages befor 48'- they are wonderers... move form here to there... I'm not that old... but lived in the Negev and in short life time see that you are telling no facts here. its all new villages.
when Israel destroy arab houses its sident because you'll have stones and molotovs... now the jews in the west bank learned that and they act in violence to. and its never about days to take down house.
LOL. Sorry. I used to be a digger and I've NEVER heard our discipline (it's not a science) described as neutral. For years Israeli archaeology (as opposed to archaeology IN Israel) has been suspect, repeating so many of the things we're taught not to do in undergraduate classes - mainly mixing nationalism with archaeology. The excavations in Silwan (actually more like large scale looting) are only the latest in a long line of such misuses, the most infamous so far being that of Masada. In fact the linking of nationalism and archaeology in Israel is so well known that there have been entire studies dedicated to explaining and analysing it.
you are right about that- every nation deeg in its national harritage- every one want to search for his own history- and Silwan as an arab village can't compeat the King david's Jerusalem. at liest from the jewish eye.
• It is an unfortunate reality that Europe has now started to dance to the tune of a Puppet-Master who already pulls the strings of both the Republican and Democrat parties in the US House of Representatives.
• We do not know whose finger is on the Israeli doomsday trigger that could start a nuclear war in the Middle East or what safeguards the world has against the possibility of a global catastrophe caused by the use of WMD from a state that refuses to sign the nuclear N P Treaty.
• This powerful lobby – that is now demanding that the world attack Iran - has no mandate from any electorate either in America or Europe, and much of its political and military activity is illegitimate, if not actually illegal, within the free world’s systems of government.
But you should do more than make us laugh...take action--don some fatigues, grab a gun and go take on the IDF!!! Please bring me with you because that is a show I'd not want to miss!