The beautiful village of Silwan lies next to and under the south-eastern wall of the Old City. Israeli settlers have been particularly aggressive here, claiming that the tomb of King David lies on the edge of village facing the eastern desert. Near to the supposed tomb, a tourist center is being built. Nearby, a row of old Arab houses has been taken over by settlers, one by one. People say that they first got a foothold by buying from an owner who was hooked on drugs. From there they moved to the others using roof-tops to make life unbearable for the residents. Among the homes they managed to appropriate was Fatima Qara'in's. In her case eviction took place while they were in residence. She also spent time in a tent with her children, in protest.

Fatima is living now in the lower end of the village, in a house that belongs to her husband's family. She's a young-looking grandmother who tells her story with great vehemence and passion, holding up the documents that prove her legal ownership

Busloads of school children brought to visit King David's tomb arrive as, later, we try to approach what used to be Fatima's home. The narrow alley leading to it has been blocked off. The few Palestinian residents who have stuck it out until now have to access their homes from the main road through their neighbours' gardens.

While waiting for a 'service' to take us back to the city center, we chat with a taxi-driver. He tells us how his father built a second room on top of his small home to accommodate his growing family. He was taken to court by the authorities, and fined. At first he paid installments on the fine out of his social security. Unable to live on what was left,

he fell in arrears. The authorities took him to court and sentenced him to 85 years imprisonment .

Fatima Qara'in speaks:
"This house belonged to my father. I and my grandmother lived there. We grew up. I mean in the house that is up there, in Wadi Helweh --my house, the one which we were born in, and grew up in, me and my brothers and sisters, in that house up there. I stayed here, my father left for Amman -- he and my mother and brothers and sisters. I stayed with my grandmother. My grandmother brought me up. [He left a long time ago?] A long time. He'd come and go, he'd stay here and stay there. He worked. You know how it is, a man travels for his work. He used to work in Amman, then he'd come to us here. My grandmother took me when I was five years old, I lived with my grandmother here. I grew up with her. We looked after each other. I was everything to her, as if I was her daughter. And I was always looking after her. I was living with her. How? I lived in the same house. I got older. My cousin came and got engaged to me. He asked her for me, because I was with her. And when we were about to get married, my father said, 'I don't want -- I want to sell the house'. My grandmother said, 'There's no one who has more right than Fatima to buy the house...' 'Okay, let Fatima buy the house'. I bought the house from him. My grandmother helped me. I had a lot of gold. My grandmother was always buying gold for me. She used to collect Ottoman pounds and put them on me. All this my grandmother collected... my mother died, I had a share from my mother, money and gold. I collected it all, and my uncle's family helped me, we gathered and I paid my father the cost of the house. Instead of the house going to a stranger, I bought it..."