Palestinian families in East Jerusalem’s al-Bustan neighbourhood are tearing down their own homes under municipal demolition orders to clear space for a planned Israeli biblical theme park, residents and rights groups say.
According to a report by The Guardian, more than 57 homes in the district, part of Silwan just south of Jerusalem’s Old City, have been demolished over the past two years, while at least eight more are expected to be levelled in the coming weeks.
The site is earmarked for “Kings Garden”, a tourist park linked to an archaeological project focused on the city’s Jewish biblical history.
For many residents, demolishing their own homes has become the cheaper option. Jerusalem resident Jalal al-Tawil stood beside a hired tractor as it smashed through the remains of the house his father built on land once occupied by his grandparents’ home.
“This is something really hard. This is something bitter,” he said. Municipal authorities had warned him that if city crews carried out the demolition, he would be charged about 2,80,000 shekels (£72,000). Hiring his own workers and machinery cost less than a tenth of that amount.
“Also, if they do it, they will uproot the land and make a complete mess,” he said, comparing the choice to “suicide or being murdered”.
By Wednesday morning, only rubble remained. Al-Tawil left untouched the thick roots of a 35-year-old grapevine until the end.
“It used to provide grapes for all of al-Bustan,” he said. The al-Bustan neighbourhood lies beneath the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and near the al-Aqsa mosque compound. Israeli authorities say the planned park will provide much-needed public green space and argue that the homes were built without permits.
In comments to the +972 news site, the Jerusalem municipality said the area “was never zoned for residential use” and the park was being constructed “for the benefit of all city residents”.
The municipality added that it had spent years trying to reach solutions with residents, including possible housing alternatives, but claimed there had been no serious engagement.
Residents reject that account.
Fakhri Abu Diab, a community leader whose family home was demolished last year, said locals had submitted their own development proposal for the district, including green areas, but that it had been rejected.
Now Abu Diab and his wife live in a portable cabin beside the ruins of their former home. Part of the kitchen still stands among broken concrete and twisted metal.
“They demolished our past. They demolished our memories. They demolished our dreams,” he said. Abu Diab said he was still paying off a 43,000-shekel (£11,000) municipal fine linked to the demolition, alongside additional costs incurred during the operation.
Rights groups accuse Israel of systematically reshaping East Jerusalem while marginalising Palestinians.
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Israeli group Ir Amim, said the project reflected attempts to erase the city’s multi-ethnic character.
“Israel is not willing to recognise the bi-national, multi-ethnic, multicultural reality of Jerusalem,” he said, criticising what he described as a “Disneyfied” historical narrative.
The threat of demolition has hung over al-Bustan for nearly two decades, but residents say pressure intensified after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and the subsequent Gaza war.
Mohammad Qwaider, 60, recently demolished part of his own family home in hopes of satisfying municipal authorities, only to be told later that the remaining structure would also be removed.
“If they demolish our house, we will put up a tent. We will not leave,” he said. Inside a small ground-floor room nearby, Qwaider’s 97-year-old mother, Yusra, recalled repeated displacement stretching back generations.
Born in Jaffa before the creation of Israel in 1948, she said her family fled during the Nakba before later being uprooted again during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“From here, we are not leaving. Not me, and not my children,” she said. Residents say the uncertainty is also taking a psychological toll on children.
“A house is a child’s dream of the future,” said schoolteacher and social worker Amina Abu Diab. “If somebody comes to demolish them, they destroy the dreams and a child’s sense of security.”
