Published: 1 July 2025
Last updated: 2 July 2025
Most Israelis associate the recent Iranian war with terrifying missile barrages that caused damage across the country. In occupied East Jerusalem, low-income Palestinian residents of the Silwan neighbourhood suffered a different but familiar type of trauma during the conflict — an onslaught inflicted not by a distant enemy, but rather by the justices of Israel’s Supreme Court.
Drawing on a legal system that favours Jews rather than treating all residents as equal, the Court issued two separate rulings that enabled the immediate eviction of six Palestinian families in Silwan’s Batin al-Hawa area so that settlers of the Ateret Cohanim organisation could take their place.
Meanwhile, in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, destitute Palestinians also faced a heightened threat of eviction during the war, this time from the IDF. At the same time, settler violence surged, expanding from Bedouin encampments to established villages, and even boiling over into an army base.
Video of street confrontation between settlers and Palestinians (Supplied by Zuheir Rajabi):
Rioting by settlers
In the deadliest incident last Wednesday, three Palestinians were killed by troops in Kufr Malik near Ramallah after rioting by settlers, according to Haaretz. The army said troops had come under fire from inside the village, but Palestinian residents denied this.
Comments2
Rachel Sussman6 July at 08:48 am
It is indeed worrisome that since the like of Smotrich and Ben Gvir and the more extreme right became part of the Israeli Government, there has been a swing of injustice and inappropriate behavior. I believe it is up to us Jews in the diaspora to express dismay but we must ensure our information is correct and we also must do so through the proper channels.
This means to first learn all there is about any particular situation and not necessarily take it on ‘face level’. Sometimes, what looks like one thing, is more complex and involved.
But then, if the case requires we must object directly to the Israeli Government and express dismay coupled with the clear understanding that while the Jewish community will always support Israel, it will not support inappropriate actions. Jewish communities can even choose to divert finances collected by them for Israel, to compensate Palestinian communities that may have been treated. We are not powerless…
Wesley Parish1 July at 07:27 am
I must take issue with this claim: ““It’s clear to me that the Jews, who are the Indigenous people of this land, have a natural, historic, legal and moral right to live in safety in any place in Israel and especially in the historic heart of Jerusalem,” Luria said.”
Judging from my knowledge of the world’s Jewish communities, most of them were made up from the original missionary or trader, his family and servants, and a community of converts. It’s also significant that in the Yemen-Ethiopia region, the Jewish communities sprang up at the ends of trade routes; as it is also significant that the original Sephardim sprang up at the western end of the Phoenician trading empire; and the origins of Ashkenazim are in the Rhineland, the border and trading “emporium” between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes.
And also, the Palestinians are most likely to be the original inhabitants of the land – the Roman Empire never expelled anyone they didn’t need to – empires need taxes, and letting a province sit fallow for several years or decades until enough people replace the original set, is one quick way to bankruptcy for an empire. The fact there are still two Samaritan villages backs up this argument. Plus the Christian church was active in the days of the Great Revolt, and after, and after the Bar Kokhba revolt, changing religion so you could simply get on with your life, would’ve been compelling.