The Westward View to the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives beyond from the Vantage Viewpoint of King David’s Palace in the City of David with the Arab Village of Silwan to the Right across the Kidron Valley – Photo by Robert Mock
Zechariah 12:3 – “And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”
Here is how the Arab Palestinians along with Obama and the American State Department are reacting and responding to the current events in Jerusalem. The Arab village of Silwan is an impoverished ghettoized neighborhood that today is hosting international inspection. For years they have been complaining that they were being neglected by Israel in the municipality of Jerusalem for they were not offered the same upgrading of the roads, sewers, and the infra-structure of this neighborhood that other Jewish neighborhoods were receiving for their upkeep and maintenance.
So, Mayor Nir Barkat of Jerusalem was planning this week to officially announce a new rehabilitation project for the Silwan neighborhood on the southern edge of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Arab and the Jewish families living there would be housed in temporary housing while the entire district would be razed to the ground. A new park would be constructed, new apartment complexes would be built and then all the residents would be moving back into their own apartments.
Today the village of Silwan is sitting on the edge of the Kidron Valley overlooking the Old City of David, This was the area that Jewish archeologists today believe once housed the extension of the Royal Monarchy Household and Governmental Buildings associated with the diplomatic corp of the most powerful man in the world; King David of Jerusalem. It is believed that under this entire region are remnants of the extension of the City of David, after he captured it from the Jebusites and later developed by Kings David and Solomon. The Kidron Valley below was once a marvelous display of plants and fauna around the world at the King David Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
The international community, including America, European Union and the United Nations are today up in arms as if they have any international rights to direct the sovereign actions of the “capital city” of any other nation. Here was one building construction plan that Israel was planning to do for its Israeli-Arab citizens, but the Palestinian Authority immediately began to attack the plan with full force.
The international community demonstrated this week that it is not only the construction of Jewish homes in Jerusalem that it opposes, but rather any sovereign action at all by Israel in the city of Jerusalem, including projects to benefit the capital's Israeli-Arab residents. They also linked any construction action by Israel not only in Jerusalem but of course the obvious, any construction in the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. Palestinian cabinet minister Mohammed Ishtayeh reported to news reporters, “There is no way the Palestinians can accept the demolishing of houses in Jerusalem and the continuation of building settlements for the Jewish settlers."
Even though the Netanyahu government has officially halted all new building contracts in the settlement regions of Judea and Samaria, the Arab community wants a complete halt to all building period by Jews for Israeli Arabs, for Jews, and for anybody in the world who would like to come and live in the Land of Israel. Yet, the United Nations, true to its form, took the political side of the Palestinians with these remarks from the UN Special Coordinator's Office for the Mideast Peace Process with these words, “We’re trying to reduce tensions at the current time, not exacerbate them. Whatever the intentions behind such a project, Israel needs to understand that demolishing Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem demolishes confidence among Palestinians and frankly, also internationally."
If we are concerned that this is bad, wait for the future. It is not that all the nations of the world will turn diplomatically against Israel, but will some day in the future, in the next seven years, to militarily lay siege to Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:2 – “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.”
Is it any wonder that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly called on the phone, just hours before the press conference was scheduled to announce the rehabilitation project, to Mayor Barkat requesting that the official launch of the project be postponed. The American Obama administration was expressed relief that Mayor Nir Barkat had halted the project calling it a “dangerous initiative”. The mayor will then go directly to the Arab residents of Silwan and was confident that the Arab residents of Silwan will all sign on the project and bring this rehabilitation project in history-rich section of Jerusalem to reality. There is no doubt that the Israeli archeologists are eager to explore the foundation of the land beneath the village neighborhood of Silwan and probably is the reason for the “park” for that area to keep it a open space for further exploration into the Hebrew roots of Jerusalem in the days of the United Monarchy of Israel.