Silwan

Silwan or Siloam (Arabic: سلوان, romanized: Silwan; Greek: Σιλωάμ, romanized: Siloam; Hebrew: כְּפַר הַשִּׁילוֹחַ, romanized: Kfar ha-Shiloaḥ) is a predominantly Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, on the southeastern outskirts of the current Old City of Jerusalem. It was the source of water for the Pool of Siloam within larger boundaries of the ancient walled city of Jerusalem, 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. Over many centuries, the village grew until it became an urban neighborhood of Jerusalem in the 20th century. In 1947, the UN voted for Silwan to be part of an international city of Jerusalem called a Corpus separatum. After the 1948 war, the village came under Jordanian rule and was annexed by Jordan. Its rule lasted until the 1967 Six-Day War. It was annexed by Israel in 1980. Neither Israel's or Jordan's annexations were recognized by most countries. Most countries view Silwan as occupied by Israel. Silwan is administered as part of the Jerusalem Municipality. In 2016, Haaretz reported that the Israeli government and the settler organization Ateret Cohanim were working together to evict Palestinians living on property registered as part of the Hekdesh trust. The trust owned land lived on by a Yemenite Jewish community in an area of Silwan now mostly referred to as Batn al-Hawa. Israeli law allows land to be reclaimed if documentation of transfer cannot be found. In 2021, the Jordanian government turned over "All the documents [they held] on property and land in Jerusalem" to the Palestinian Authority to prove cases of ownership transfer....