Siloam

Silwan or Siloam ( ar, سلوان, translit=Silwan; gr, Σιλωὰμ, translit=Siloam; he, כְּפַר הַשִּׁילוֹחַ, translit=''Kfar ha-Shiloaḥ'') is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem.Archaeology and the struggle for Jerusalem
''BBC News''. February 5, 2010

It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament; in the latter it is the location of Jesus' healing the man blind from birth. Medieval Silwan began as a farming village, dating back to the 7th century according to local traditions, while the earliest mention of the village is from the year 985. From the 19th century onwards, the village was slowly being incorporated into Jerusalem until it became an urban neighborhood.

After the 1948 war, the village came under Jordanian rule. 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.

In 1980, Israel 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, but the Israeli government disputes this. 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.Nir Hasson
'How Israel Helps Settler Group Move Jews Into East Jerusalem’s Silwan,'
Haaretz January 6, 2016.

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.

Geography

Silwan is located southwest of the Old City Walls and constitutes part of the Jerusalem's " Holy Basin". The neighborhood has a narrow shape on a north-to-south axis. It is bounded by Wadi Hilweh and Abu Tor to the west and the Ras al-Amud neighborhood to east. Its southern tip touches the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood and its northern tip touches the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery.

The neighborhood, originally a village, is built on the southern ridge of the Mount of Olives, where it slopes steeply from approximately above sea level, until it reaches the Kidron Valley, bounding the neighborhood to the west. The historical core of the village is in its northwestern section, considered to be the site of ancient Jerusalem. This location is where dozens of ancient burial tombs attributed to the time of ancient Israel and Judah as well as the Byzantine rule were found. The modern villagers used the tombs as dwellings or as enclosures for livestock. Many of the burial tombs are inhabited until today. The village was built next to numerous water sources of historical importance, such as the Pool of Siloam (Ain Silwan), Gihon Spring and Ein Rogel. The rest of the village was built in the 19th century.

History

Iron Age

In the ancient period, the area where the village stands was occupied by the necropolis of the Biblical kingdom.
"Silwan, Jerusalem: The Survey of the Iron Age Necropolis," David Ussishkin, Tel Aviv University webpage. In the valley below, according to the Hebrew Bible" () to water what since King Solomon became known as the king's garden (; ; ).

The necropolis, or ancient cemetery, is an archaeological site of major significance. It contains fifty rock-cut tombs of distinguished calibre, assumed to be the burial places of the highest-ranking officials of the Judean kingdom. Tomb inscriptions are in Hebrew. The "most famous" of the ancient rock-cut tombs in Silwan is finely carved, the one known as the Tomb of Pharaoh's daughter. Another notable tomb, called the ''Tomb of the Royal Steward'' is now incorporated into a modern-period house. The ancient inscription informs us that it is the final resting place of ""...yahu who is over the house." The first part of the Hebrew name is effaced, but it refers to a Judean royal steward or chamberlain. It is now in the collection of the British Museum.

At their first thorough archaeological investigation, all of the tombs were long since emptied, and their contents removed. A great deal of destruction was done to the tombs over the centuries by Roman-period quarrying and later by their conversion for use as housing, both by monks in the Byzantine period, when some were used as churches, and later by Muslim villagers "...when the Arab village was built; tombs were destroyed, incorporated in houses or turned into water cisterns and sewage dumps."The Necropolis from the Time of the Kingdom of Judah at Silwan, Jerusalem, David Ussishkin, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May 1970), pp. 33–46.

According to the Hebrew Bible