Silwan

And there is a bulldozer or a crane or whatever knocking down structures.

All right, this was on September 9th in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said authorities demolished 35 Palestinian structures near access roads, serving new settlements in the northern West Bank, describing the buildings as unauthorized and linking the operation to efforts to strengthen Israeli settlements in the area.

Fuck your settlements, which are all illegal.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, eight Palestinians were detained in raids around Jenin Sunday, including two children taken from their homes.

A Palestinian man was injured by Israeli gunfire in the neighborhood of Silwan near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli settlers also attacked multiple villages in the central West Bank, according to reporting from Middle East Eye.

Meanwhile, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kajakalis, said today that the EU should treat illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank the same way it's treated Russia's invasion of Crimea, encouraging all nations to adopt what she called a principled stance by backing an EU-wide ban on Israeli settlement trade, which is illegal under international law.

He said, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? Then he says to them, I tell you, Nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

Isn't that interesting? Now realize that there are other verses in there that talk about salvation, but notice the times that Jesus Christ spoke of the need to repent and the long-suffering the Lord, that all should come to repentance.

In describing what goes on in heaven when a soul gets saved, you know what the Lord said in Luke chapter 15? Turn there.

And this is consistent.

We've seen other actions happening elsewhere in Jerusalem, in the Silwan area, where Palestinians are being evicted.

So there is a consistent and steady move to make it impossible to divide Jerusalem again.

And that, of course, is a central issue as far as Palestinians and Muslims around the world for the two-state solution.

And when I think about this in the context of stories that I've reported, I think immediately about the battle over archaeology in the West Bank, for example.

So you find settler organizations who simply want to steal Palestinian land, accusing Palestinians who live in Sebastia or Nabi Samuel or Silwan, not only kind of neglecting the antiquities in their midst, but also of posing an existential threat to so-called Jewish heritage sites.

This is something that the NGO Emek Sheveh has documented.

Any sort of political discourse can be appropriated.

Well, the film is about a family in Silouan, so that brings us back to the relationship to archaeology, the excavations that are happening under people's homes in Silouan, the constant displacement of the families of Silouan, which is still happening right now.

There's an amazing group called Save Silwan.

If anybody's interested to learn more about the Palestinians on the ground that are trying to save Silwan, that would be the go-to.

Kutaiba is an amazing leader of that organization.

And the way that this happened was amazing.

So it was a challenge.

And the biggest, well, it wasn't so much a risk, but challenge was how do you make spaces in Jordan feel like Jerusalem? both Palestinian and Israeli spaces.

And that was really tricky, right? How do you build a set that is meant to feel like Silwan? I think topography has something to do with it.

So this is where it comes.

We work with an institution called Silwan, and it is a small city in Jerusalem.

Our production designer name is Dima.

And Dima Srouji, she's a Palestinian artist and an activist who's living in London.