On Wednesday , 3 July 2019, Ir David foundation hosted an inauguration ceremony for a “tunnel” under Silwan village south Al-Aqsa compound , Ir David announced that excavations have been going on for six years , they worked nonstop and named it “Pilgrimage road”.

US ambassador to Israeli “David Friedman” , and the white house Mideast envoy “Jason Greenblatt” participated in the inauguration of the tunnel.

The tunnel is 350 m long * 7 m wide, it starts from Ein Silwan area , and goes under the village of Silwan towards Wad Al-Hilweh.

The excavations have caused damages to several houses in the recent years ,which caused the evacuation of several Palestinian homes, especially that the Israeli occupation prohibit any repairing works in the old city of Jerusalem.

Several houses fell down due to the excavations in Wad El-Hilweh area , especially last winter. Residents of Silwan said that at night they heared  excavations noise. The complaints of the residents  were completely ignored. For more information read the following LRC report: Arabic, English

According to the plan, the tunnel will end to the “Wailing Wall” , and will be opened for tourists and settlers , which will serve their narrative and suppress Jerusalem’s Arab identity. 

During the past six years the excavations were carried out by the so called Nature Authority  ,  Archeology authority and Ir David foundation.

About Silwan:

1 Km south Jerusalem, Silwan is surrounded by Jerusalem (north & east), the green line (west) , Ath-Thori and Jabal Al-Mukabir (south).

Silwan has an area of 1,400 dunums, 855 of them are the town’s built up area.