Palestine Monitor - “I asked them to give me a minute to wake him up. But they didn’t wait, they came in and took him”, said Mahmoud Mansour as he explained how the Israeli police arrested his son. Mahmoud is the father of 12-year-old Imran Mahmoud, the boy who was caught on video being forcefully hit by the car of David Beeri, head of the settler organization, Elad, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Less than ten days after Imran was critically injured by the hit-and-run, the Jerusalem police arrested him on charges of throwing stones.
Written by Charlotte Silver.
Since the murder of Samer Sahan by a settler guard on September 22, Jerusalem police and security forces have filled the streets of Silwan. Every day, the neighbourhood teems with police patrolling the streets on foot and in cars. This past week alone, the police conducted a massive arrest campaign, detaining at least 23 residents.
“They call them the rangers of the settlers. It’s really making life so much more difficult.” Mustapha Siyam, a resident of Silwan, said.
Particularly startling, however, is the arrests this week have included at least six children between the ages of eight and 12. The charge against the children is always the same—throwing rocks—and they are usually released after a day. Imran was detained and interrogated for four hours before being fined 2,000 NIS and sentenced to two weeks house arrest.
Muna Hasan, who works for the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, explained, “The charge for arresting minors is always throwing stones. But for the past few days, the children were not throwing stones, there was nothing. They just picked them from the streets for nothing.”
On Wednesday October 18, three minors were arrested in Silwan, including one boy who was recovering from a recent surgery.
A few days earlier on Monday, October 16, three children between the ages of 10 and 12 were detained. One of them, Muslim Auda, aged 10, returned to his family with his legs heavily bruised from beatings he had received from the undercover police who arrested him.
“Investigators beat them, shout at them, and they also try to make them a collaborator. They use methods that are not even appropriate for adults. They make children tell them who the children throwing stones are.” Hasan said.
Imran reported to his parents that when he was being interrogated, the police asked who else throws rocks.
Hasan is not surprised by the escalation of harassment. “It’s not new, of course, you know Silwan has the highest percentage of arrested people in East Jerusalem, in minors especially… We think all the Israeli practices, including the arrests, including letting settlers do what they are doing, all of this is coming under the same fact that they want to put more and more pressure on the Palestinians.”
Silwan is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Jerusalem. The families and residents lack many basic services, including schools, community centers, and resources for their children. Due to Israeli zoning, a very small proportion of land in East Jerusalem has been allocated for building. Furthermore, obtaining a building permit costs up to USD $25,000-30,000. The impossibility of building has made living quarters intolerably overcrowded.
“The parents don’t have the capacity to involve their children in community centers or playgrounds outside of Silwan. Also the pressures that are on the parents from the Israeli laws, taxes, and demolition orders, all of these pressures make the situation worse”, Hasan told us.
Despite the pressures, the resilient local community has found ingenuity to cope. In 2007, Palestinian residents in Silwan founded the Madaa Creative Center in order to create a safe place for children to develop their creativity through music and art, and maintain their Palestinian identity.
“Residents themselves took the initiative to start this on their own; they don’t wait for any authorities to build a place for their children.” Hasan said.
In 2008, in response to Mayor Nir Barkat’s demolition order of 88 houses in Silwan to make room for the expansion of the City of David archaeological park, the Palestinian residents erected a large tent. In the tent the locals organise prayer, meetings, children’s activities, and other community events. On October 21, former US-president, Jimmy Carter visited Silwan and met with local community leaders in the tent.
The latest addition to locally formed organizations is the Wadi Hilwah Information Center, formed by a group of residents in 2009. The aim of the centre is to tell the Palestinian history of this village as a means to counter the increasingly dominating Jewish narrative that has been promulgated by the archaeological site, the City of David.
According to Hasan, visitors and tourists who come to the City of David are instructed about the origins of the neighbourhood exclusively by the settler organization, Elad. Elad’s brief presents the area as primarily the archaeological site of the ancient Judean King David. This narrow view obscures and denies the history and current reality of the Palestinian residents of the area.
“Wadi Hilweh aims to emphasise the Palestinian identity of this village, and also tell all the violations against the Palestinians from the settlers and from the Israeli authorities”, he said. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center also issues daily reports on clashes, arrests, and beatings that occur in Silwan.
So in spite of the escalated intimidation tactics of arrests, interrogations, and threats, the community of Silwan remains unbowed and determined to survive.
“With this tent and the centres, the Palestinians are meeting together, building trust within each other, and thinking how to resist and bring our voice to the outsiders.”
They do so in the knowledge that the Israeli authorities are determined to force them out and will countenance any method to succeed.
Learn more from the Wadi Hilweh centre http://silwanic.net/
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