Earth has been shaken in al-Bustan near Jerusalem’s old city walls by jackhammers and bulldozers used to erase Palestinian presence and impose a uniformly Jewish identity. In this neighborhood, demolition is carried out by Palestinians themselves, including families watching tractors and jackhammers dismantle homes built by earlier generations. Jalal al-Tawil described the experience as bitter and draining, while leaving a 35-year-old grapevine until the end. The decision is driven by economics: the Jerusalem municipality demanded 280,000 shekels for state demolition, while hiring private equipment and labor cost far less. He also expected municipal work to uproot land and leave it in worse condition.
"At the bottom of a steep and densely populated valley just below Jerusalem's old city walls, the earth has been shaken in recent weeks by jackhammers and bulldozers. These have been the sounds of Jerusalem for decades as the Israeli state has relentlessly sought to stamp a uniformly Jewish identity on to the occupied east of the city, while erasing its Palestinian character. Typically it is workers for the state and municipality at the wheel of the bulldozers, but in the al-Bustan neighbourhood, in the shadow of the 11th-century al-Aqsa mosque, the clamour is from a more recent development. It is the sound of Palestinians demolishing their own family homes."
"This is something bitter,' said Jalal al-Tawil as his family's home was demolished. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian This is something really hard. This is something bitter, Jalal al-Tawil said as he watched a tractor he had hired, with a front loader at the front and jackhammer at the back, rip apart the last remnants of the house his father had built, which in turn had been on the site of his grandparents' home. By Wednesday morning, most of the walls had been brought down to their foundations and the rubble pushed into a single pile."
"Al-Tawil left the thick knotty root of a 35-year-old grapevine until last. It used to provide grapes for all of al-Bustan, he said. The spring vine leaves had already sprouted along the trellis above him, but he was resigned to the fact they would never again bear fruit. The experience of demolishing his own family's home and history had drained al-Tawil, but it came down to brutal economics. The Jerusalem municipality had told him it would cost him 280,000 shekels (72,000) if its workers demolished the house."
"Hiring his own equipment and labour would cost al-Tawil less than a tenth of that. Also, if they do it, they will uproot the land and make a complete mess, he said."
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