Conspiracy to Judaise Silwan

Silwan is an Arab neighbourhood next to the Old City of Jerusalem which is inhabited by about 45,000 Arabs. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan took control of the area and the place remained under Jordanian administration until Israel occupied it in 1967. Later, Israel declared Silwan as a part of Jewish state along with the whole of East Jerusalem but the International community refused to recognise the Israeli annexation.       

The Jewish settlers or occupying terrorists call the place Kfar Hashiloah thinking that the site which is so close to the Buraq Wall (western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque) is a land the Jews inherited from King Solomon. No stone of the al-Buraq Wall has any relation to Judaism because there is no stone there dating back to Hebrew history. The Jews of the earlier generations did not regard the wall as sacred or a place for worship. Later, the extreme minded or Zionist Jews began to pray at the wall in the nineteenth century in their efforts to direct the attention of the Jews towards Jerusalem. What the Jews call Temple Mount is the compound known as al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Sacred Sanctuary) which contains the Dome of the Rock Mosque and Al-Aqsa Mosque.    

The Muslim tradition tells that the construction of the village called Silwan originated with the arrival of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab to Jerusalem. The Christians had gathered to see Umar and imagined that he would be escorted with pomp and utmost security like the kings of those days. Instead, Umar entered Jerusalem on foot while his servant mounted on the camel and there were no soldiers to protect him. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Sophronius who ruled Jerusalem on behalf of the Byzantine Emperor was so impressed by the humbleness of the Great Caliph that he presented Umar the key to the city.      

By the time of the 1931 census in Palestine, Silwan had a population of 2553 Muslims, 124 Jews and 91 Christians. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Silwan grew northward towards Jerusalem, expanding from a small farming village into an urban neighbourhood. Today, Israel’s illegally constructed houses for Jewish settlers and demolition of Palestinian homes are threatening to change the demography of Silwan as part of their efforts to drive Palestinians out of East Jerusalem.

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Written by: Ibrahim Nazim
24 September 2010, Friday
15 Shawwal 1431