JERUSALEM, Friday, March 01, 2019 (WAFA) – The underground excavations carried out by Israeli settlers beneath Palestinian buildings in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan have caused landslides following the last winter storm.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that the torrential rains and flash floods over the past two days have exposed new landslides and cracks in Palestinian buildings and roads as a result of the ongoing Israeli settlers’ underground digs beneath the neighborhood.
The Center detected “life-threatening” collapses Thursday evening in a wall surrounding a playground and a parking lot in Wadi Hilweh area, which it has blamed on the ongoing underground excavations carried out by Israelis and subsequent removal of large amounts of earth from under the area.
It also detected other landslides in a plot of land currently used as a parking lot by the neighborhood residents. The land, located next to Ein Silwan mosque, is the property of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The center warned the area of cracks and landslides have noticeably increased, causing damages to over 70 Palestinian houses and buildings, not to mention local streets.
The work above the ground and the underground digs by the settlers in that area without any consideration for the safety of the Palestinian families living there have posed a serious threat to the entire neighborhood.
Residents of Silwan, which is adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem, said that instead of doing something to stop the settlers’ digs and work and make living safer for the local residents, the West Jerusalem municipality decides that these homes are not safe and orders them evacuated and closed.
The expressed fear that the digs and work in that area by the settlers are intentional and sanctioned by the municipality and government as a prelude to evacuate the Palestinians from their homes under the pretext they were not safe to live in to eventually take over their homes and replace them with the settlers, who are anxious to take over the entire Wadi Hilweh street and neighborhood, which they call City of David.
K.F.
