القدس الشريف: منظر عام

The Palestinians were living in Palestine in peace Moslems, Christians and Jews during the Ottoman period. It all starts to change when the Zionists start immigrating in big numbers to Palestine at the beginning of the twentieth century, and start creating gangs terrorizing the Arab villages and towns during the British mandate of Palestine between 1918 and 1948. Between 300-500 Palestinians towns and villages were destroyed after the creation of Israel in 1948. The Palestinian people became refugees and still are refugees in neighboring Arab states, because they were driven out, and were forced to leave in the war of 1948. I still have the key to my grandfather house in Palestine. Like any society the Palestinian Arab Society did have the rich, the poor and the middle class. We did have the landlords, the farmers, the businessmen, the doctors, the engineers, the garbage collector, the shoemaker, and the bus driver. Yes those beautiful homes do belong to Arab Palestinian families. Some of the houses are average traditional Palestinian houses built in Jerusalem during that period, and some are mansions belong to a richer well off families, and what is wrong with that? What good we did too, we did preserve the landscape of the Biblical Holy land of Palestine, and cultivated the land during the centuries. The olive tree is one example.

I deeply object to what my govenment is doing in Silwan. I feel ashamed.