Archaeology as a pretext for annexation in East Jerusalem

Silwan, annexed East Jerusalem, Thursday October 2th. Majd Gaith, 23 years old, cannot yet believe what happened two days ago. He shakes his head while attempting to explain the situation on the ground using a map.

In the early hours of last Tuesday some ten Jewish settlers, protected by police, moved into seven buildings. ‘A while ago already the neighbors suspected something was going to happen’, according to Majd. Some time ago Farid Al-Haij Yehya came here on a visit. According to Majd Farid is an ex member of the Islamic Movement. He was looking at some houses and maintained he had plans to renovate them and to turn them into schools for the children of Silwan.

They finish the houses and clear the path for the women and children who will soon follow.

Majd, who works in the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre in Silwan, says they should have known better. ‘The whole time already renovation works were going on in a number of buildings where the settlers have moved in now. They have just been making them ready to cope with the first load. The vanguard.’ The vanguard are young men, who look a bit like new hippies. Slovenly hair style and untidy look. They are recruited with a campaign in Jewish periodicals and everybody who is prepared to guard the premises receives five hundred shekel per day. They finish the houses and clear the path for the women and children who will soon follow.

Not the first time

It is not that Silwan isn’t used to settlers. In 1987 already a first house was occupied. In 1991 five more houses were added, but the real problems only started in 2004 with a more aggressive and goal-oriented plan to turn Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood, into a Jewish one. Elad, a settler organisation directed from the USA, is behind this project.

They try to chance the character of the whole neighborhood, to drive the Palestinians out and conquer for themselves a bigger chunk of Jerusalem. The purchasing of houses takes place in an extremely cunning and non transparent way. Through middlemen (often Palestinians), by means of which it is not always clear to the seller who exactly they are selling to.

With the support of the Israeli government

Settlers replace the latches and fortify the door of the new residence in Silwan

‘It is especially bitter when you realize that this has been made possible with the help of the Israeli government,’  says Lior Amihai from  Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, advocating a negotiated two state solution. ‘The ministry of housing spends millions of shekel every year for the protection of the settlers.’ When the group of settlers turned up in Silwan in the night from Monday to Tuesday, they came with a police escort.

Also the other settlers get protection by the border police or by private companies hired by the authorities. Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu have repeatedly stated they do not have a problem with the fact that the settlers buy houses over the green line. ‘Palestinians can also buy houses in Jewish neighborhoods,’ Nir Barkat quickly said. ‘In my city I do not tolerate any form of discrimination on the basis of religion or origin.’

Fierce protest

European as well as American observers have clearly stated their disapproval of the new settlements, which are in violation of international law. ‘The Palestinians have no leg to stand on, no way to make a case,’ according to Lior Amihai from Peace Now, because the houses were purchased on the private market.

‘When they take to the streets to protest, they are arrested and kept in detention without due process; if they want to settle the matter before the court, they do not stand the slightest chance against an adversary with millions of dollars (Elad, editor’s note). Palestinians are not Israeli nationals and a lot of proofs of ownership date back to the period before 1948. Politically speaking they are not on firm ground either because the local authorities still view them as second rate citizens and the Palestinian Authority has no say in East Jerusalem’.

Silwan or the City of David

Silwan, in the shadows of the old city

Silwan is a very important location for both population groups. ‘Ten years ago not a single Israeli knew where Silwan was situated. But since the Palestinian village, in the shadows of the old city next to the Wailing Wall, has been baptized ‘City of David’, no Israeli wants to give up this important and historically significant part of Jewish history,’ according to Lior Amihai.

When he talks about Silwan’s precarious situation, he does not shun the term ‘Hebronisation’ –just as some other voices in the debate. ‘Hebron and East Jerusalem are the only Palestinian neighborhoods where settlers have settled in the middle of a community. The situation is not completely comparable. In Hebron Elad is not a player, but the settlers use the same methods, the same tactics. The final goal: to get the Palestinians out.’

Archaeology as an excuse

‘The archaeological excavations have to give more rationale to the Jewish story at the expense of the Palestinian presence, which is marginalized.’

The goal justifies the means. According to Yonathan Mizrachi of Emek Shaveh, a NGO focusing on archeology as a means to annex land, that is precisely what is happening in Silwan. Just outside the walls of the old city a new old city is created. ‘The perception of that part of Jerusalem changes in this way’, according to Yonathan. ‘The archaeological excavations have to give more rationale to the Jewish story, at the expense of the Palestinian presence, which is marginalized.’

The Israeli National Fund has opened a tourist centre at the top end of Silwan’s main street and takes coaches full of tourists there to give more weight to the Jewish story. It is noteworthy that Elad is also behind this tourist centre. It is a well devised plan. ‘It is not innocent Israeli people coming to live in Silwan – as the lord mayor Nir Barkat suggests’, Lior Amihai stresses.

Last Sunday Barkat cut another tape for a free shuttle service that will bring tourists from the south of the city in no time to the Wailing Wall. The Israeli buses drive through Silwan. Why? Nir Barkat gives a straight answer: it underlines the Jewish presence.’ To date the settlers have not completely succeeded in their endeavors’, according to Yonathan Mizrachi. ‘They cry victory but have by far not altered Silwan’s demography. There is still a majority of Palestinians living there. About 55.000. The settlers are some five to six hundred.’ But their number is on the increase and the Palestinians’ quality of life doesn’t get any better in the meantime.

Archaeological excavations near the City of David with the visitors’ centre in the background

Givat Hamatos

While the Israeli settlers are nestling slowly but gradually in the heart of East Jerusalem, the periphery of Jerusalem is being cut off  from the Palestinian hinterland. The recently published environmental plan which will allow for the construction of 2.610 housing units in Givat Hamatos is a new step in that direction.

When the housing units are realized they will connect and transform the already existing settlements of Gilo and Har Homa to one uninterrupted block and physically isolate the remaining Palestinian neighborhoods from Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank. A continuous Palestinian state becomes almost impossible in that way.

‘Politically, Givat Hamatos is a hot potato’, Betty Herschman from Ir-Amim says, a (once again) Israeli NGO defending Palestinian interests in East Jerusalem. ‘Yet here too the Palestinians have little to oppose. As it happens, some of the houses to be build are meant for Palestinians.’

‘We are simply building houses for our people.’

The United States and Europe have condemned the decision but the Israeli government does not see any objections to the plan. ‘We are simply building houses for our people.’ In the beginning of August, Netanyahu blocked the announcement on Givat Hamatos because it would elicit fierce reactions. What made him change his mind since? The pressure of the extreme right in his government which thought his reaction to Gaza war of last summer was too weak and demands action.

trailers in Givat Hamatos, possibly soon to be replaced by housing

Two state solution

The developments of the last few weeks in and around Jerusalem show that Israel does not intend to turn the city into the shared capital of Israel and a future Palestinian state. The two state solution is further away than ever.

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