Showing posts with label Silwan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silwan. Show all posts

Friday, December 4, 2015

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) 130-Year-Old Testimony of Jewish Life in Shiloah (Silwan), Jerusalem

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)



Posted: 03 Dec 2015

An annotated picture found in the British Library's Endangered Archives collection

Annotated picture of Shiloah (Silwan) from the Bonfil albums digitized by the British Library (circa 1890s)
The Shiloah (Silwan) village south of Jerusalem's Old City dates back to Biblical times. Water from its spring was used in the Jewish Temples. Jewish royalty was buried in its caves with Hebrew inscriptions naming the deceased. Over the centuries the hill was inhabited by Christian monks and Arab families.

Below is one of the first photographs taken in Palestine in 1844 showing Silwan's small size.  It was taken by Girault de Prangey, a student of  the inventor of photography, Louis Daguerre.  View more of de Prangey's photographs here. Many of his photographs are now online at the French National Library.


The village of Shiloah (Silwan) in 1844 and the Kidron Valley (Smithsonian Magazine)
The 3,000 Maison Bonfils photographs from the Fouad Debbas Collection in Beirut digitized by the British Library have the barest of captions -- with the exception of one album with lengthy English annotations. The first photograph above provides an example. It describes the Yemenite Jewish community that moved into the Shiloah village in the 1880s.  Below is the handwritten caption.


The caption on the photograph reads, "The village of Siloam on the east bank of the Kidron Valley.  The Pool of Siloam is opposite to the village on the west bank.  The inhabitants are Mohammedans except at the extreme south (right hand of picture) where the Yemenite Jews live in a small colony of tiny stone buildings as shown in a long low patch of white."

On the right side of the picture, adjacent to the Jewish housing, the album owner wrote, "The Yemenite Colony."

Photographers of the 19th century focused their lenses on the Yemenite residents, especially the photographers from the American Colony where the Yemenites' arrival in 1882 was viewed as the "Gaddites" returning home and as a messianic harbinger.






We had the privilege of providing an essential detail to the Library of Congress' picture in its archives of the "village of Siloah" (circa 1901). The man, we explained after consultation with Yemenite historians, is a Yemenite Jew, originally from Habani in Yemen.

He was probably among the residents of Shiloah.

The American Colony photographers took scores of pictures of Yemenite Jews and helped provide food and shelter to the poor immigrants.
Poor Yemenite Jewish family (circa 1890s). An American
Colony caption read "Group of Yemenite Jews" 



"A scene in a Jewish Yemenite Quarter," according to the Library of 
Congress caption. The picture, possibly shot in Shiloah, was taken in 
the 1930s when the Jews of Silwan (Shiloah) were suffering 
from attacks from their Arab  neighbors. They eventually fled
 their homes. Today, Jewish families have returned to Shiloah.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Jerusalem’s Silwan Shows Coexistence is Possible

Jerusalem’s Silwan Shows Coexistence is Possible

Tuesday, December 09, 2014 |  Aviel Schneider  ISRAEL TODAY
The international media heavily criticizes Jewish life in what is today called the Arab neighborhood of Silwan near Jerusalem’s Old City.
Every time a Jewish family moves into what historically was the City of David, it is presented as an act of provocation by so-called "settlers."
The media is quick to jump on stories of riots, stone-throwing and other violence in Silwan, but in reality there is a quiet and functioning coexistence between the neighborhood’s Jews and Arabs.
Jewish and Arab children playing peacefully on local streets never makes the evening news. Nor does a wedding invitation in Arabic hanging on the refrigerators doors of several local Jewish families. But even if it’s invisible to the world’s eyes, local Jews and Arabs often work together.
The Jewish residents speak of this openly. The Arabs, however, have to be more careful, often only speaking anonymously.
"One day," an Arab man named Bassem told us, "men knocked on my door and told me that it was forbidden from that moment on to work for Jews. The next morning, the tires of my car were slashed. I got the message. It wasn’t long before all 70 of the local Arabs working at the Jewish [archeological] excavation site quit their jobs."

The upcoming January issue of Israel Today Magazine includes additional interviews with Jewish and Arab residents of Silwan and a deeper analysis of the situation there.
Don’t miss this important article - SUBSCRIBE NOW >>

While Bassem toes the party line when it comes to criticizing Israel, he has nothing against the Jewish "settlers" who are his neighbors.
"I wish all my neighbors were like them [the Jews]," said Bassem. "But if you post my picture, or include my name, then you can be sure that my wife will be a widow and my children orphans! I know what I'm talking about. Some Palestinians were already killed just because they were suspected of having worked for the Jews."
Another local Arab who asked that we not even give him a pseudonym for fear of retaliation added, "I've driven pregnant Jewish women to the hospital several times on Shabbat [a day on which religious Jews won’t drive]. And Jews have helped me to apply for social assistance. Unfortunately, we also have Hamas and Islamic Jihad people among us who can not stand it when we live together in peace with the Jews."
Rabbi Doli Bassok, who is on the committee that moves new Jewish families into Silwan, also spoke of a muted coexistence. "We don’t always trust the Arabs, but we do respect them," he said. "None of us hate the Arabs."
Today, some 90 Jewish families totaling a little more than 600 people live in Silwan among just under 40,000 Arabs. Their presence is seen as a bulwark against efforts to again divide Jerusalem.
The upcoming January issue of Israel Today Magazine includes additional interviews with Jewish and Arab residents of Silwan and a deeper analysis of the situation there.
Don’t miss this important article - SUBSCRIBE NOW >>    
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Israel Today - "Israel to Ramp Up Building in Jerusalem"

Israel to Ramp Up Building in Jerusalem

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early Wednesday morning announced a major increase in Jewish building projects in Jerusalem.
The announcement came just hours after Netanyahu had freed 26 blood-soaked Palestinian terrorists as a "peace gesture." The new building projects were themselves seen as a gesture to the Israeli public that had so opposed the release of jailed murderers.
The new building plans are to include an additional 1,500 housing units in the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in north-eastern Jerusalem, a large new visitors' center at the City of David archaeological park outside the Old City, and a new national park on the slopes of Mt. Scopus.

Ramat Shlomo was at the center of a rift in Israel-US relations in 2010when the municipality announced new building tenders there during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden. Washington supports the Palestinian claim to the eastern half of Jerusalem.
The City of David archaeological park is situated in the volatile Arab neighborhood of Silwan, another local flash point, and the new park on Mt. Scopus will reportedly prevent the expansion of nearby Arab neighborhoods.
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