The Big Banger: 59 Homes Gone in al‑Bustan
Since late 2023 a bulldozer has taken down 59 buildings in a tiny valley of East Jerusalem called al‑Bustan. The fallout raids have hit families that have lived there for decades.
Why has the city gone from quiet block to demolition zone? Israeli planners want to turn the stretch into a park called the King's Garden that will showcase Old Testament history. That tweak means pushing the Palestinian residents out.
Homes are more than stone. The Awad family spent 40 seasons building and loving the house they inherited from their grandparents. Today the only floor remaining is a shelter from the sound of demolition. “We built a life we can finally call ours, now it’s torn apart.”
Moving isn’t easy. Many locals go to the demolition orders and pick up a sledgehammer to knock the basement out before the police predict huge fines for professional demolition. The cost to keep a house is often tens of thousands of dollars.
A council clerk told us that the city's courts are moving faster and cheaper. Jerusalem’s planning board plans a massive yeshiva at the front of Sheikh Jarrah – the building in East Jerusalem that has sparked protests for years. New policies mean more land is earmarked for Israeli families, and fewer places remain for Palestinians to live.
The fight is global. The European Union just said the situation in al‑Bustan is “dire.” Calls for an end to the settlement push are echoing across the world. The community’s clamor says on the streets that the city should belong to all who walk it, not just one group.
For the Palestinians, losing a home feels like losing a part of their history and hope. The dream of a future in a shared city keeps fighting, but the waves of bulldogs leave only wreckage and memories to decide the next chapter of Jerusalem.
