Ghousoon Bisharat & Thomas Dallal
Mondoweiss / August 26, 2022
Amani Odeh shares about her life in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem where 1,500 residents are living under the threat of demolition to make way for Jewish settlers.
Amani Odeh was born and raised in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood situated just below Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in illegally annexed and occupied East Jerusalem.
VIDEO : Amani Odeh on saving Silwan – Mondoweiss
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 Silwan’s Al-Bustan quarter, 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. Amani, a practicing dentist who still lives in Al-Bustan with her spouse and two young children, describes reality and life in Silwan as a working mother.
As told to producer/director Ghousoon Bisharat and cinematographer/editor Thomas Dallal.
Follow Mondoweiss’s coverage of Silwan here.
Shu al-Qusa/What’s the Story is a video series by Ghousoon Bisharat and Thomas Dallal that illuminates Palestinian life and politics through intimate first person interviews with Palestinians. View the series here.
Ghousoon Bisharat is an experienced journalist and producer, as well as a strategic communications and international cooperation expert
Thomas Dallal is an award-winning photojournalist and cinematographer currently based in Haifa
