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<\/a>Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\nIt all responds to a decade-old principle: maximum land for Israelis, with minimum Palestinians. This is not a slogan but a political rationale that guides each instance of confiscation. \u201cThe methods change, but not the strategy,\u201d confirms a woman from Al-Bustan. \u201cThey want a settler majority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wadi Qaddum is no exception. On December 30, another house was demolished in Al-Bustan. Officials, escorted by police, forced the children out of their beds at dawn. A few hours later, only a sleeping cat remained among the rubble. \u201cIt\u2019s the thirty-fifth house demolished here already,\u201d says the father, a victim of a system that denies people\u2019s right to live in their own homes. The reason, once again, was the lack of a building permit, as required by the authorization system that regulates the entire East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
In recent years, with a sharp acceleration after October 7, 2023, the expansion of Israeli settlements and the destruction of Palestinian space in East Jerusalem have become complementary processes. In 2025 alone, the authorities approved nine colonial plans: 4,744 housing units on 1,153 dunams of land (1.153 square kilometers). Twelve more plans (2,417 units) are currently awaiting approval.<\/p>\n From October 7, 2023, to the end of 2025, data from the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem paints a systematic picture: thirty-two settlement plans approved, for a total of 8,944 new units on 2,121 dunams. During the same period, 623 Palestinian structures were demolished, including 274 homes. Forced displacement affected over three thousand people, including five hundred children.<\/p>\n The year 2025 marked a peak with the demolition of 360 structures in East Jerusalem, almost half of which were residential. In Silwan, there have been at least fifty demolitions since October 7, 2023, most of which took place in the last year. Each intervention, justified by the same administrative measure \u2014 the absence of permits \u2014 systematically produces the same outcome: loss of property, displacement, and the forced precarity of Palestinian life.<\/p>\n In Silwan, this precarity endures in family histories. Fakhri Abu Diab, activist and spokesperson for Al-Bustan, welcomes us into a caravan after his house was demolished twice in 2024. The second demolition took place during that fall\u2019s US presidential elections: a well-established practice of striking while international attention is elsewhere. \u201cThey told me not to worry,\u201d he says, \u201cthe Americans are busy. No one has time for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Today the caravan stands amid the rubble. \u201cHere was the kitchen; here was the bathroom,\u201d Abu Diab points out. \u201cThis is our museum.\u201d<\/p>\n The demolitions leave families fragmented: \u201cBefore we were together; now everyone lives somewhere different.\u201d The trauma continues in the threat: the grandchildren sleep with the light on, and every noise sounds like a bulldozer. Even the caravan is under demolition order: \u201cIf you come back, we may not even have this.\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of Abu Diab\u2019s family, the municipality again justified the demolition by claiming that the building did not have a permit. \u201cThey don\u2019t give people any chance to obtain a construction permit,\u201d he explains. \u201cYet part of the house they demolished was built before 1967, before the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n After 1967, Israel occupied and illegally annexed East Jerusalem, applying its own domestic law there. The Palestinians who live there are not citizens but permanent residents: a fragile, conditional status, ever open to being removed. \u201cIf you don\u2019t live here, you lose your residency,\u201d says a woman from Silwan. \u201cAnd if your house is demolished, how can you prove that you live here?\u201d<\/p>\n Residency thus becomes an administrative trap. Palestinians are forced to stay in Jerusalem in order not to lose the city, but at the same time they are prevented from building there. They can only live there on condition that they continually prove that Jerusalem is their \u201ccenter of life.\u201d Moving, working elsewhere, or marrying a Palestinian from the West Bank can be enough to lose their status. In some cases, the police even check refrigerators. \u201cThey come to see if there is fresh food,\u201d she explains. \u201cTo see if you are lying about where you live.\u201d<\/p>\n In this context, the housing shortage in East Jerusalem is not a side effect but a direct consequence of urban policies. Building permits for Palestinians are almost impossible to obtain. \u201cWe tried for years,\u201d says a resident of Al-Bustan. \u201cLawyers, architects, alternative plans. We said, give us the permits and we\u2019ll organize the neighborhood. They replied clearly: it\u2019s not a legal issue \u2014 it\u2019s political.\u201d<\/p>\n Building without a permit thus becomes the only option. And this necessity is then weaponized against those who do build structures. \u201cFirst they deny you a permit,\u201d she says. \u201cThen they punish you for building without one.\u201d<\/p>\n In East Jerusalem, illegality is not an individual violation but a condition imposed on the collective. \u201cHere we live in total uncertainty,\u201d she adds. \u201cOne day the house is there. The next day it may be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Demolitions produce a permanent precarity, a condition in which building, living, and planning for the future becomes almost impossible. This violence, cleansing the territory of Palestinians, passes not just through explosions but through the administrative tools of urban planning.<\/p>\n When a demolition order is issued, the owner has two options: demolish their own home with their own hands or pay huge fines to cover the costs of the bulldozers, the police, and the operation. This system forces people to actively participate in their own expulsion.<\/p>\n In Abu Diab\u2019s case, the municipal authorities demanded payment of 45,000 shekels (about $13,500) to cover the costs of demolition. When he refused, his bank account was frozen.<\/p>\n \u201cThey seized all my accounts,\u201d he says. \u201cThey completely blocked my financial situation until I pay for the bulldozers and police who demolished my house.\u201d<\/p>\n Another resident we met in Silwan says he demolished his father\u2019s house with his own hands. If he hadn\u2019t, the fine would have been 90,000 shekels (about $27,000). \u201cWe had no choice,\u201d he says. \u201cEither we destroyed the house, or they destroyed us financially.\u201d<\/p>\n Abu Diab is also the spokesperson for the Al-Bustan community. Silwan is made up of thirteen neighborhoods; six of these are now under demolition or evacuation orders. Al-Bustan is one of them. \u201cAbout a hundred houses here have had demolition orders since 2005,\u201d he explains. \u201cFor years, we managed to freeze them thanks to legal work and international pressure. But the last year has been different.\u201d In 2024 alone, about a quarter of the neighborhood was destroyed. \u201cThey accelerated everything,\u201d he says. \u201cDemolition after demolition.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan for Al-Bustan has been known for years: to transform the Palestinian neighborhood into a \u201cpublic park\u201d that extends the archaeological site of the \u201cCity of David,\u201d already active in Wadi Helwa, a few meters away. This is presented as a historical endeavor, but in reality it involves the erasure of an entire Palestinian neighborhood. \u201cThey say King David passed through here,\u201d says Abu Diab. \u201cThey want to connect the Old City, the City of David, and the settlements.\u201d Behind the language of archaeology and urban greenery lies a specific political objective. \u201cThis means only one thing,\u201d explains another Al-Bustan activist, whose home has been reduced to rubble. \u201cThey want to swap out the Arab majority living in Jerusalem and replace it with settlers.\u201d<\/p>\n Not all houses are demolished in the same way, nor at the same pace. \u201cThey don\u2019t choose people at random,\u201d say the residents of Silwan. \u201cThey target those who speak out, those who organize, those who denounce.\u201d Demolitions are not just walls collapsing. They are political punishments, with a clear deterrent message: raise your voice, and you will pay the price.<\/p>\n Abu Diab knows why his house was targeted. During a police interrogation, they showed him photos of his meetings with diplomats and members of the European Union:<\/p>\n They said to me, \u201cHaven\u2019t you learned yet? Are you still talking to diplomats? No one is listening to you anyway.\u201d I replied, \u201cI will continue. Without violence, in accordance with the law. I will continue to speak. I will continue to protect families whose homes are threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking out remains essential. \u201dEven if they target those who speak out, as they do with journalists in Gaza, it means that speaking out works,\u201d says an Al-Bustan activist.<\/p>\n And while they destroy homes and lives, the international community remains silent. \u201cIt has abandoned us,\u201d says Abu Diab. \u201cIf no one does anything, why should Israel stop? Israel acts as if it is above the law. And this is everyone\u2019s responsibility, each and every one of us. Every house demolished, every woman who loses her home, every child, every person affected, is everyone\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThey use urban planning to destroy us. This is not peace. It is one demolition after another.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you only look at the stones, you think it\u2019s a house. But it never is. They want to destroy people: psychologically, economically, socially. This is war here. . . . A home is your history, your memory, your present, and your future. It is your entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n Faced with all this, for Israel\u2019s partners to keep silent is to be complicit in its crimes.<\/p>\n<\/a>Rubble in Silwan, December 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)
\n<\/a>A demolished home in Silwan, December 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n<\/a>Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n<\/a>Fakhri Abu Diab, activist and spokesperson for Al-Bustan, saw his house demolished twice in 2024. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n<\/a>Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n<\/a>Rubble in Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n<\/a>A demolished home in Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)
\n<\/a>Street art in Silwan, July 2025. (Luisa Canciello \/ Jacobin)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along with the constant violations of the ceasefire in Gaza, home demolitions are continuing apace in East Jerusalem.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-266003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}