Wadi Hilweh is a neighborhood in the Palestinian Arab village of Silwan, intertwined with an Israeli settlement called the City of David. [1] [2] [3] The Silwan area of East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and 1980 Jerusalem Law, an action not recognized internationally. The international community regards Israeli settlements as illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
The Wadi Hilweh neighborhood stretches over historical Jerusalem's so-called Southeast Hill, [lower-alpha 1] extending down from the southern city walls of the Old City. According to tradition, Silwan originated at the time of Saladin in the twelfth century on Ras al-Amud,[ clarification needed ] on the southwest slope of the Mount of Olives, then in the early twentieth century[ dubious ] it expanded across the Kidron Valley (known to locals as Wadi Sitti Maryam or the Valley of St. Mary), eventually incorporating all of the Southeast Hill. [5]
The area immediately outside the walls of Jerusalem was undeveloped for most of early modern history, with the exception of the village of Silwan. Modern settlement outside of the walls began in the late 19th century. A few small buildings are visible on the hill facing the houses of Silwan in the Illés Relief, built between 1864 and 1873. In 1873–1874 a member of the notable Jewish Meyuchas family moved to a house on the towards the bottom of the hill. [6] [ dubious ] During the early 20th century, Baron de Rothschild acquired some land in the same area for the purposes of archaeological excavation. [7] The Meyuchas family left in the 1930s; no other Jewish families are known to have settled in the area during the period. [7]
During the later stages of the Mandate era the houses of the nearby Arab village of Silwan expanded across the Kidron Valley and up the ridge of what became Wadi Hilweh.[ citation needed ]
After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the whole area fell on the eastern side of the Green Line under Jordanian occupation.[ citation needed ]
Arab families continued to live on the ridge and to build houses there after 1967.[ citation needed ]
More recently, the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood has become the scene of both archaeological exploration and Israeli settler activity, becoming embroiled in what archaeologist Rafi Greenberg has called "the Israeli national project of unifying Jerusalem and the settler project of breaking Palestinian Jerusalem apart", both of which have "joined to disenfranchise the people living above and among the antiquities". [8]
Greenberg noted that, as of 2014, the local settlers were "a tiny, belligerent minority in Silwan", while the "indigenous [Palestinian] community are deprived of their materiality", calling it a "classic case of residual colonialism". [8]
In October 2014, Uri Ariel, politician from The Jewish Home party and at that time Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction, caused controversy when he suggested he was considering taking up residence in the area. [9]
From 1968 to 1977 the Israel Exploration Society began the first excavations on the hill that rises to the north of the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood, believed to be the elevated area known as the ophel of Jerusalem in the Hebrew bible. The work was led by Benjamin Mazar and Eilat Mazar. [10]
The Jerusalem Walls [National] Park was declared in 1974 on "a large part of the neighborhood of Silwan." Other parks in East Jerusalem include Tzurim Valley Park in 2000 and in 2013, Mount Scopus Slopes National Park (located between al-'Esawiyah and a-Tur), and Refa'im Stream National Park (on lands belonging to al-Walaja). These parks were approved on privately owned Palestinian lands and in built-up areas or areas bordering the built-up sections of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages. According to B'Tselem these parks are not meant simply to protect nature, landscape and heritage but are also, "perhaps mainly", meant to promote political agendas. By declaring parts of the city as parks entails no development in these areas and serves the political agenda far better than any municipal restrictions on planning and building. [11]
In 1997, management of the City of David within the park was assumed by the Ir David Foundation (commonly known as Elad). First suggested in 1920 for this particular area, the term "City of David" was used officially from the 1970s onward, following the capture of East Jerusalem by Israel, but today the name with its biblical and political connotations is questioned by some in the archaeological academic community. [12] Since El'Ad took over the management of the park in 1997, 'David's City' has essentially become a religious-nationalist battle cry that has transformed the area from an ordinary Palestinian neighbourhood with a few excavation pits, largely unknown to the Israeli public, into a religious settlement and major national biblical monument with hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and an official education site for Israeli school children and soldiers.
Around 70 homes in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan are under threat of demolition. According to Ir Amim plans call for the establishment of a touristic and archeological park (King's Garden) which would extend the City of David southwards to cover the entirety of Al-Bustan and towards the settler enclave in central Silwan (Batan al-Hawa) where the Ateret Cohanim settler organization is active. [13]
After having been run by Elad for three years, management of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park/Davidson Center, south of the Western Wall Plaza, with effect from July 2021, reverted to the government's Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter. [14]
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A US$60–66 million project to construct a 1.4 km cable-car running from the First Station compound, passing over the neighborhoods of Abu Tor and the Valley of Hinnom, then through the Mount Zion parking lot and ending at the Kedem visitor center in Silwan/City of David was put on hold following a judgement by the Israeli High Court on 24 February 2021. Since 2019, the court has several times examined petitions against the project, which is closely connected with Elad. Israeli authorities were given until 22 April to provide explanations to the Court on various matters. [15] [16]
Elad is planning the construction of a 16,000 m2 structure on the opposite side of the Wadi Hilweh Street, at the former Givati parking lot, the "Kedem Compound", which was approved in April 2014, [17] a project that was denounced by UNESCO in October 2016. [18]
Jerusalem is an ancient city in West Asia, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim, however, is widely recognized internationally.
The Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel, is the main congregational mosque or prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. In some sources the building is also named al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, but this name primarily applies to the whole compound in which the building sits, which is itself also known as "Al-Aqsa Mosque". The wider compound is known as Al-Aqsa or Al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf.
The City of David, known locally mostly as Wadi Hilweh, is the name given to an archaeological site considered by most scholars to be the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages. It is situated on southern part of the eastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem, west of the Kidron Valley and east of the Tyropoeon Valley, to the immediate south of the Temple Mount.
The Old City of Jerusalem is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world.
Ir Amim(Hebrew: עיר עמים; "City of Peoples" or "City of Nations") is an Israeli activist non-profit founded in 2004 that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem. It seeks to ensure the "dignity and welfare of all its residents and that safeguards their holy places, as well as their historical and cultural heritages."
Kidron Valley is the modern name of the valley originating slightly northeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, which then separates the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives, and ending at the Dead Sea. Beyond Jerusalem it continues in a general south-easterly direction through the Judean desert in the West Bank, reaching the Dead Sea near the settlement of Ovnat, and descending 4,000 feet (1,200 m) along its 20-mile (32 km) course.
David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist and professor emeritus of archaeology.
Tel Rumeida, also known as Jabla al-Rahama and referred to by Israeli settlers as Tel Hebron is an archaeological, agricultural and residential area in the West Bank city of Hebron. Within it, lies a tell whose remains go back to the Chalcolithic period, and is thought to constitute the Canaanite, Israelite and Edomite settlements of Hebron mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple period literature.
Silwan or Siloam is a predominantly Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, on the southeastern outskirts of the current Old City of Jerusalem.
Ophel, also Graecised to ophlas, is the biblical term given to a certain part of a settlement or city that is elevated from its surroundings, and probably means fortified hill or risen area. In the Hebrew Bible, the term is used in reference to two cities: Jerusalem, as in the Book of Chronicles and the Book of Nehemiah, and Samaria, mentioned in the Books of Kings. The Mesha Stele, written in Moabite, a Canaanite language closely related to Biblical Hebrew, is the only extra-biblical source using the word, also in connection to a fortified place.
A number of archaeological excavations at the Temple Mount—a celebrated and contentious religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem—have taken place over the last 150 years. Excavations in the area represent one of the more sensitive areas of all archaeological excavations in Jerusalem.
Judaization of Jerusalem is the view that Israel has sought to transform the physical and demographic landscape of Jerusalem to enhance its Jewish character at the expense of its Muslim and Christian ones. This also often involves the increasing Jewish presence in Jerusalem in the modern era, referring to the Jewish Old Yishuv becoming increasingly dominant since the Ottoman era; this process continued until it became the largest ethno-religious group in Jerusalem since the mid-19th century and until the 1948 War, when Jordan cleansed Eastern Jerusalem from its Jewish presence.
Ras al-Amud is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, located southeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, overlooking the Palestinian neighborhoods of Silwan to the south and Abu Dis and al-Eizariya to the east, and bordering the Jewish neighborhood of Ma'ale HaZeitim to the north, which overlooks the Temple Mount. There were about 11,922 Arabs living in the neighborhood in 2003.
Ir David Foundation or City of David Foundation, commonly known as Elad [El'ad] is a Jerusalem-based, Israeli settler association which aims to strengthen the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and renew the Jewish community in the City of David, which is also part of the neighborhood of Silwan. The foundation works to achieve its goals by tourism, education, archaeological excavations and obtaining homes in the area to establish a Jewish presence.
'En Esur, also En Esur or Ein Asawir, is an ancient site located on the northern Sharon Plain, at the entrance of the Wadi Ara pass leading from the Coastal Plain further inland. The site includes an archaeological mound (tell), called Tel Esur or Tell el-Asawir, another unnamed mound, and two springs, one of which gives the site its name.
Batn al-Hawa is a residential neighborhood inside the village of Silwan, which is located south of the al-Aqsa Mosque, outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The neighborhood or Mount Batn al-Hawa, which is an extension of the Mount of Olives, and is located in the eastern corner of Jerusalem; It is separated from it by the Silwan Valley, which connects to the Kidron Valley at the same point, and is known by the Jews as "Har Hashishit" or "The Flood Mountain.
Palestinian displacement in East Jerusalem is the transfer of Palestinian residents from the city due to Israeli policies aimed at an Israeli-Jewish demographic majority. Many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem have been affected by "forced relocation processes or been involved in lengthy legal procedures to revoke an eviction order." According to OCHA, between a third to a half of East Jerusalem's houses do not have permits, potentially placing over 100,000 Palestinian residents of the city at risk of forced displacement and forcible transfer as a result of demolitions.
Al-Bustan is a well-watered area and neighbourhood located to the south of Wadi Hilweh in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem, and currently consists of more than 100 Palestinian homes. The area is the subject of a controversial proposed Israeli development project that envisions demolishing the existing houses and creating a national park, while constructing new four-story apartment buildings around it into which the current residents would be relocated.
"City of David" is a biblical and religious epithet for the ancient city of Jerusalem.