What's The Story? Amani Odeh on saving Silwan
Channel: Mondoweiss
Date: 26/08/2022

Amani Odeh was born and raised in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood situated just below the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in illegally annexed and occupied East Jerusalem.

Amani, a practicing dentist who still lives in Silwan's Al-Bustan quarter with her spouse and two young children, describes reality and life in Al-Bustan as a working mother. All East Jerusalem neighborhoods, including Silwan, have faced systematic Israeli human rights violations for more than a half century. These coercive practices include arbitrary seizures and demolitions of Palestinian homes, mass Israeli Jewish colonization, the imposition of fragile residency status on East Jerusalem Palestinians in their place of origin, and the strangulation of Palestinian construction, economic growth and livelihoods. Israeli government authorities, together with private actors, plan to seize Silwan’s property, consistent with Israel's overall objective of establishing a dominant Jewish demographic in annexed Jerusalem. In the Al-Bustan Silwan neighborhood, the vast majority of homes have demolition orders, threatening to displace approximately 1,500 Palestinians to make way for a tourist garden inside the Israeli City of David settler project.

As told to producer/director Ghousoon Bisharat and cinematographer/editor Thomas Dallal.