38th anniversary of the conquest of East Jerusalem

"That," says former Jerusalem City Councillor Meir Margalit, "is your classic Jewish settlement in Silwan." He is nodding towards a house nuzzled on a hill that slopes down from Jerusalem's Old City walls. It has an extension, a watchtower and a fence. There is a settler-only promenade snaking between Palestinian homes that, collectively, house 45,000 people. Graham Usher reports from Silwan.

Settlers have bought, inveigled or forcibly taken over some 40 Palestinian houses in Silwan "with more in the pipeline," says Margalit. The conquest is plotted by the settler organisation El Ad, which believes Silwan is the Biblical City of David. But it has been powered and protected by government money and resources. The result is spread out on the village hills: "secure Jewish ghettos in the heart of an insecure Arab community," says Margalit.

Margalit's Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, http://www.icahd.org, is taking a group of diplomats and journalists through Silwan. The purpose is not to chart the strategy and topography of settlement -- though it "helps to know them if you want to understand the destination", he smiles.

The destination is Al-Bustan or "garden": a Palestinian neighbourhood in the pit of the Silwan valley, covering 64 dunams, crested by a mosque, decked by conifer trees and home to 1,000 Palestinians.

Last November Israel's Jerusalem municipality issued demolition orders against their 88 homes. The land is a zoned public open space, "a declared archeological site," and the houses were built "illegally", says Uri Shitreet, Jerusalem City engineer. If implemented, the cleansing of Al-Bustan would mark the single largest destruction of Palestinian homes since the Old City's Al-Magharbeh and Al- Sharaf areas were razed following Israel's conquest in 1967.

Margalit does not deny that the houses were built illegally -- they would have to be, he says, since this is the only way Palestinians can build. "The issue is not whether the Palestinians had permission to build their homes. The issue is that the municipality denies them permission as a deliberate policy, even when, as in Al-Bustan, the Palestinians own the land. The entire phenomenon of 'illegal' Palestinian building is due to a municipal policy that restricts where Palestinians can live in East Jerusalem".

Neither does he deny that the land is rich in historical value. "But the issue is who lives in the village today, not where David walked 3,000 years ago. The country is full of places where Jewish history can be found. So is Iraq. But this cannot be a reason to take houses of people who have lived there all their lives. It's not about history. It's political".

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