We’ve been following the story of Silwan on this site. Specifically, the ongoing Israeli effort to force Palestinians from the area to ensure a corridor of Israeli control stretching from Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. Meron Rappoport has a great piece from the neighborhood which reveals some Israeli feelings about the hotly contested area. From the Guardian website:
A few minutes later two teenage girls, aged 17 or 18, come walking up the path. They’re not orthodox, and one can see that they’re not local. One of them stops in front of the camera. Film me, she pleads. Would you like to be interviewed, we ask. She says yes. She’s from the town of Gan Yavne, and came to visit Jerusalem, City of David. Why here, we ask. Because this is where King David was, she says. It’s a very important place for the Jewish people. It’s such a shame there are Arabs here, though. But very soon all the Arabs will be dead, God willing, and all of Jerusalem will be ours. She walks on.
Two minutes pass by, and an ultra-orthodox Jewish family comes striding up the path. The husband, all in black, asks Ilan: say, do both Jews and Arabs live in this neighbourhood? Both Palestinians and Jews, Ilan replies, but most residents are Palestinians. It’s only temporary, the ultra-Orthodox man reassures him, pretty soon there won’t be a single Arab left here.
I exchanged glances with Ilan and Michael. We’ve been here for less than 15 minutes, we haven’t asked anyone on what they feel about Arabs or the future of Jerusalem, we only stood for a short while in the street. Hate flowed toward us like a river to the sea, freely, naturally.
The piece is titled "Fifteen minutes of hate in Silwan." Remember Max Blumenthal’s video Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem? Remember how he was criticized for not showing "real" Israelis? One can only imagine what the video would have looked like if he did.
(h/t Paul Woodward from War in Context)
