Israeli authorities destroy Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities destroyed the heart of an East Jerusalem neighbourhood on Monday. The demolitions, justified as a response to building illegalities, are a major step to eradicating the neighbourhood of al-Bustan to make way for a park, reinforcing the penetration of far-right settlers in a key Palestinian area.

After the bulldozers were through, parts of al-Bustan looked like they had been hit by an Israeli airforce strike, driving home that such demolitions are yet another front in a wider war against the Palestinians, raging also in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Residents were stunned and shaken by what remained: rubble stretching into the distance, heaps of dirt, corrugated metal and a child’s toy. Clanging pierced the air as youths discarded scraps of two homes belonging to Fayez Awad, 58, and his daughter Zeinab. Nine people had lived in them, ranging from Zeinab’s one-year-old girl to Awad’s 95-year-old mother. Nearby walls were also bulldozed in an area adjacent to the low income neighbourhood’s main street.

Al-Bustan, a community of 1,500, in the East Jerusalem area of Silwan, is situated beneath al-Aqsa mosque and wedged between two settler communities.

It is a victim of a crackdown on violations of building regulations, which Palestinians say are being used to enable settler takeover of the area. Palestinians throughout East Jerusalem are seldom granted building permits and therefore are often forced to build illegally.

A shadow has been hanging over the neighbourhood for two decades when the municipality disclosed plans to level it, declaring all structures to be in violation of its legal status as an open area and announcing plans for a park to be known as the King’s Garden, where King Solomon supposedly took leisure.