Sunday, February 8, 2009

Silwan

This is Silwan, and Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem (PS - totally check out the link, it has a very interesting history). Today, I went with two other volunteers to interview a family whose home is under demolition order by the government.

I"ll hopefully have the patience to write out a bit of the issues with home demolitions in the future, because it is incredibly important and incredibly complicated - but for now, check out the link above if you are interested.

Outside the home of the family that we interviewed - this house has a demolition order against it.



Conducting interviews. Mainly, we ask questions just to try to understand their side of the story - what were they told by the authorities, what is the story behind the home and property, do they have legal representation, what will they do if it is demolished, how many people live there, etc.




What we want to not happen: The remains of a home that was demolished a couple of months ago. In this case, there was not very much time to get everything out, so there is all sorts of stuff in the rubble - shoes, furniture, etc.

1 comment:

Victor said...

Interesting. I'm wondering if this digging of tunnels (which, in conjuction with the newly constructed Jewish settlements, the London Times says bolsters the Jewish claim to the Jeru's Old City in the wake of a peace deal) is connected to the digging that made the Arab school collapse and the girls get injured. I'm trying to draw connections or perhaps my brain is doing it automatically.