A Place Where Children Can Play

The community of Silwan sits high in the hills east of Jerusalem. Because it sits adjacent to the City of David, settlers have been slowly displacing the people there. In addition, the private security forces and police who guard the new inhabitants have a tendency to harass the people who live there, particularly the children.

Walking the streets of Silwan

I believe that violence easily becomes cyclical in nature. The fear of a young child who has to walk past soldiers holding large automatic weapons on the way to their school turns into teens that throw rocks, causing damage to the houses on the hill directly below. They aim for the settler's security guards and homes, but they easily hit their own.

Our roles in the area is to provide protective presence, by accompanying the children to school and visiting the community center, a place which was built by the Swiss but is run by parent volunteers as a place to keep the children safe and from wandering the streets.

Yesterday we took our first walk through the area, and visited the community center. The children there love to practice their English but I am feeling the need to at least try to speak Arabic, so I hope to take some private lessons from a woman in our community. Rumor has it she also teaches middle eastern cooking, which I will have to learn because as they say, one cannot live by shwarma street wraps alone!

Inside the Community Center,
where children play after school

Today two of us went on our first school watch. We stood at the top of the stairs greeting the children as they ascended to the boys and girls school. Girls looked smart in their burgundy track suits and the boys were dressed in normal street clothes. Because the sunrise was behind us, we believe that some of the smaller children may have been frightened by us. 

We decided to move up to the top of the hill closer to the school when some of the older teen boys began throwing rocks at the houses below. Instinctively, we knew that it is harder to make the wrong choice when you have to meet the eye of another. So we joined their group so that they were distracted enough to stop. We tried to tell them through gestures "Please don't do that, someone will get hurt!"

Looking down on the rooftops of Silwan

I'm not suggesting that the feelings held by the young men behind the rock-throwing were wrong - certainly their anger was justified. How long can you see your younger siblings harassed on the street before wanting to do something about it?

I know that I am an outsider, but I'm here to help spread peace. If it were one of my teens, I'd certainly have better language skills and some level of basic trust to work the issue out. These teens, my own son's age and younger, could injure a smaller child unintentionally, and if they were caught they'd serve 20 years in jail. 

Imagine living out your childhood in a place where security people can harass you, out of frustration or boredom. Imagine being a teen who is so full of frustration and anger that he'd choose to throw a rock and risk detention until he is in his mid-thirties. Imagine being a parent who lives in fear because your child has so few places to grow and play.

I wish there were more we could do to break the cycle, but perhaps our intervention today prevented further escalation in that moment. There is truly no way to know.