A few weeks ago, as the rain poured down on Jerusalem, a small group of Israelis and Palestinians gathered in a fluorescent-lit basement in Silwan, East Jerusalem. They were participating in the newest dialogue initiative of  Combatants for Peace: working non-violently to counter Israel’s settlement policy in Silwan. On this cold evening, the Arab community leaders voiced their desperation: mayor Nir Barakat plans to demolish some 100 homes in the al-Bustan area in order to build an archaeological theme park, “The King’s Garden.” At least 1,500 people will lose their homes.

The residents know what is at stake here. “Israel wants the majority in Jerusalem,” said one community leader in Arabic. “We are at a crossroads.” One of his colleagues translated.

Silwan is home to some 40,000 residents, nearly all Arabs, plus a handful of Jewish settlers. Ir Amim describes the neighborhood’s neglect by the Israeli authorities:

Many of Silwan’s roads are unpaved. The village lacks regular garbage collection. One high school serves 40,000 residents, and students are forced to travel to distant schools in the city. The neighborhood does not have a public youth center or community centers in general, nor does it have a single public park. Since 1967, fewer than 20 construction permits have been issued to Palestinians in the Wadi Hilweh area, and those too were mainly for minor additions to existing construction. As a result, the vast majority of buildings in Silwan in general and in al-Bustan in particular are built without permits.

“There was an empty hill that we used to play on, take our families there,” noted the community leader, gesturing towards the center of al-Bustan. “Then they came and said it belongs to Kakal [the Jewish National Fund] and Elad [the Israeli settler organization entrusted with the excavations in the area]. They built a fence around it,” he said.

Archaeologists agree that Hebrew rulers were based here during the Late Judean period. Now Elad, the settler association (the acronym translates as “To the City of David”) is digging for further proof. The Israel Antiquities Authority has voiced concerns about Elad’s digging methods, and with good reason: last month, a portion of Silwan’s main road collapsed above the digging, and an Israeli Egged bus fell several feet in. But the organization has been given free reign over the digging—which the Silwan residents hear in the night.

In the basement in al-Bustan, the Israelis from Combatants for Peace (CFP) were there not only to voice their support, but to cooperate in developing non-violent strategies in the neighborhood. CFP, originally formed of ex-Israeli combat soldiers and Palestinian militants who all renounced violence, has joint Israeli-Palestinian groups all over Israel and the Palestinian Territories: Tel Aviv-Nablus, Jerusalem-Ramallah, and others.

This newest initiative in Silwan is modeled on CFP’s revolutionary but simple strategy: talk to each other. The Israelis plan to organize trips for Israeli groups to come to al-Bustan and meet the residents in their homes. And broader media and advocacy efforts are also underway.

CFP’s efforts are part of a larger turn to Silwan by peace groups and the media (see the recent New York Times article) in recognition of the fact that Jerusalem may make or break an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Judging from the length of the meeting—or perhaps it was the time taken for all the translations—that conviction is strong.

And for the local residents, they are simply fighting for their homes. Said one, “We want peace. But a peace that honors us.”

Jeremy Siegman, an activist in the Sheikh Jarrah movement, explains why the violent evictions of Palestinian residents from their homes in the Sheikh Jaraah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, and the immediate takeover of these homes by extremist Jewish-Israeli settlers,  must be of concern to all who seek peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.

We are the non-violent, grass-roots protest movement of Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals concerned about Sheikh Jarrah. Sheik Jarrah is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

We are concerned because since August, 3 families of Palestinian refugees have been evicted from their homes there, with extremist Jewish Israeli settlers moving in immediately. In one case, a family’s belongings were literally thrown onto the street in the rain as the settlers moved in with police escort. The families—Hanoun, al-Kurd, and al-Ghawi, totaling about 60 people—were 1948 refugees from Haifa, West Jerusalem, and other parts of what is now Israel. They were part of a group of 28 families settled in Sheikh Jarrah in 1956 by UNRWA and the Jordanian government, and have lived there ever since.

We are concerned because the Hanoun, al-Kurd, and al-Ghawi families have been made refugees for a second time. And no one is offering them their old homes in Haifa or West Jerusalem. Instead they are living in the street and in tents that the Jerusalem Municipality has repeatedly torn down. The settlers have private security paid for by the Israeli government, and harass and attack the Palestinian families almost daily. [See video below showing settler threatening Nasser al-Ghawi with M-16 at demonstration in February.]  The Israel Police seldom takes any action against them. In fact, instead of cracking down on the violent attacks by settlers, the Israel Police have arrested almost 100 non-violent protestors, trampling on the right to protest.

We are concerned about a system that gives pre-1948 ownership rights to Jews, but not to Arabs. The settlers in Sheikh Jarrah have produced documents from the Ottoman period showing that in the late 19^th century, a Jewish community existed in the area of Sheikh Jarrah (see Ir Amim’s summary). The veracity of the settlers’ documents is unclear, but the political motivations are crystal. Sheikh Jarrah is part of a chain of planned or existing Israeli-Jewish settlements in the heart of Arab neighborhoods to the east of the Old City—Silwan, Ra’as el-Amud, at-Tur, and others. This is a strategic move to block a potential political agreement over Jerusalem at this critical juncture. And it is part of Israel’s policy of “Judaizing” East Jerusalem, a term used by government officials themselves.

So if you’re concerned about Jerusalem—

if you’re concerned about the Hanouns, al-Ghawis, and al-Kurds on the street—

if you’re concerned about peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians—

then you too should be concerned about Sheikh Jarrah.

Video from the recent protests of thousands at Sheikh Jarrah here: