Yusra Qwaider, 97 years old and bedridden, is facing the loss of her home for the third time. Her house in the Al-Bustan neighborhood, where she has lived for over 50 years, is set to be demolished by bulldozers from the Jerusalem municipality. This demolition would make way for an archaeology and tourism park in the Silwan area, just outside the Old City.
“I don’t know what to do… I want to stay in my home,” Yusra said from her bed, where she lives with 12 family members. The municipality claims the house is illegal, as it was built in 1970 without permits. Her son, Mohammed Qwaider, expressed his frustration, stating, “We have tried every legal avenue.”
According to the Israeli NGO Ir Amim, demolitions in Al-Bustan have increased dramatically since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The organization reports that the threat of demolition now looms over the vast majority of the neighborhood’s 115 homes. This year alone, 17 homes have been razed, compared to 13 in 2025 and 24 in the previous year. Ir Amim advocates for an equitable sharing of the city’s resources.
The NGO attributes the increase in demolitions to a sudden decision by the municipality to halt talks with residents about a proper housing solution for the area. Many homes in annexed east Jerusalem were built without permits, which Palestinian residents claim are nearly impossible to obtain.
The municipality did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The King’s Garden
Standing amidst the rubble of five homes that once stood, Fakhri Abu Diab, head of the residents’ committee, told visiting diplomats that the municipality aims to demolish all 115 houses by October. He pleaded, “We ask you to prevent this, to let us stay in our homes. This is a political decision, and world leaders are doing nothing. You must do something.”
“It’s a war crime what they’re doing, demolishing homes and displacing us. We have nowhere to go,” said the 64-year-old, whose own home was demolished in 2024. The issue at hand is the expansion of the City of David archaeology and tourism project in Silwan, believed to be the original site of ancient Jerusalem.
Razing Al-Bustan is intended to create space for the adjacent “King’s Garden” park, which is managed by the Elad settler organization. Peace Now’s Yonatan Mizrahi explained that Elad uses various strategies to take over specific areas of Silwan. “You have very few archaeological finds in Al-Bustan, so they’re saying there’s a biblical narrative about the king’s garden and it ‘probably’ was where Al-Bustan is today,” he said.
Ahmed Tibi, Israel’s most prominent Arab lawmaker, claimed the main goal is “the Judaisation of Silwan” at the expense of its Palestinian residents. “After October 7, there’s been a huge difference. They felt they could get away with everything,” he stated.
If the evictions continue, over 2,000 Palestinians living near Jerusalem’s holiest sites risk being displaced in “one of the largest waves of expulsions in east Jerusalem since 1967,” warned Ir Amim.
Not allowing Palestinians to build
City councillor Laura Wharton, representing the liberal Jerusalem Union alliance, highlighted the punitive nature of the lack of building permits. “Far worse than the demolition is the fact they’re not allowing Palestinian residents to build,” she said. “Your average Silwan resident doesn’t have his house recognized, doesn’t have a building permit, doesn’t have a place to park — the primary services they get are demolition services.”
This situation is not lost on the locals. “That Israeli is allowed to build; look, he’s 50 meters away, no-one’s stopping him. But for us it’s forbidden,” said 60-year-old Omar Abu Rajab bitterly. He decided to self-demolish his one-bedroom house to avoid the high costs of the municipality doing it.
So far, he has accumulated 64,000 shekels ($21,400) in fines, and if the municipality razes his house, it would cost tens of thousands more. At the site, two of his grandsons have skipped school to help, swinging mallets at the plasterboard walls.
“We’ve lost everything, even though we own this land,” he said, explaining that he and his wife will move into his brother’s house, which is also facing the same fate.
