What is "silwan"

Silwan is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem. Forty Jewish families also live in the area. Silwan is located in East Jerusalem. After the 1948 war, the village fell under Jordanian occupation. Jordanian rule lasted until the 1967 Six-Day War, since which it has been occupied by Israel. Silwan is administered as part of the Jerusalem Municipality, and is part of the J1 sub-district of the Jerusalem Governorate. In 1980, Israel, without formally annexing it, incorporated East Jerusalem (of which Silwan is a part) into its claimed capital city Jerusalem through the Jerusalem Law, a basic law in Israel. The move is considered by the international community as illegal under international law. According to Haaretz, the Israeli government has worked closely with the right-wing settler organization Ateret Cohanim to evict Palestinians living on property whether classified formerly as heqdesh (property pledged to a temple) or not, especially in the Batan el-Hawa area of Silwan.

Depending on how the neighborhood is defined, the Palestinian residents in Silwan number 20,000 to 50,000 while there are about 500 to 2,800 Jews.