Wadi Hilweh (Arabic: وادي حلوة) is the Arabic name of a majority Palestinian Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is the subject of a naming dispute with the Israeli government and others calling the area the City of David (Hebrew: עיר דוד, romanized: ʿĪr Davīd). It was included within the boundaries of Silwan during Jordanian and early Israeli control, and some still consider it part of Silwan, but it is currently treated as separate neighborhood by Israel's Jerusalem municipality. It intertwines with an Israeli settlement.Wendy Pullan and Max Gwiazda, "Jerusalem's 'City of David': The Politicisation of Urban Heritage" , Divided Cities/Contested States Working Paper No. 6, 2008, p. 12: "The 'City of David' is formally treated as a settlement; making homes for Jewish people is seen as an integral part of El-Ad's heritage stewardship"The Independent, "Israeli foreign ministry cadets to defend 'legality' of West Bank settlements ", 1 November 2015, "Among the new sessions to be added to the cadet's course are a lecture on the legality of the settlements based on the claim that the West Bank is not occupied territory, according to The Times of Israel. It also includes a tour of the “City of David” settlement in the Palestinian Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, to be led by settler leader David Be'eri, who seeks its transformation, based on biblical claims, into a Jewish area."Sixty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan: Report by the Secretary-General , A/69/348, 25 August 2014: "Archaeological excavations and parks are also used as a way to control land for settlements, mainly through the funding, participation and endorsement by the Government of Israel of archaeological projects led by settler organizations. Observer organizations report that several archaeological projects in the Old City of Jerusalem are being used as a means to consolidate the presence of settlements and settlers in the area. On 3 April 2014, despite several objections presented by Palestinian residents of the Silwan neighbourhood, a Palestinian community with a population of 45,000, located around the southern Old City wall in East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved a project known as the Kedem Compound.36 The Kedem Compound includes a museum, a visitors centre, and a parking lot covering around 16,000 square metres. The plan was presented by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation, also known as Elad, which works to strengthen the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, notably the Silwan area. The Kedem Compound would constitute a gateway to the City of David National Park, a touristic archaeological site controlled by the same organization."
The Silwan area of East Jerusalem was annexed by Jordan following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and then by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1980 Jerusalem Law. Neither Israel's or Jordan's actions were recognized internationally by most countries. Jordan annexed an expanded Silwan into its Municipality of Jerusalem in 1961. The United States recognized Israeli control of Jerusalem in 2017. Most of the international community regards Israeli settlements as illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. Israel viewed itself as a successor state to the partition of Palestine along with Jordan.
The Wadi Hilweh neighborhood developed as an extension of the village of Silwan. Silwan originated on Ras el-Amud, the southwestern slope of the Mount of Olives, and started to expand across the Kidron Valley in the early twentieth century. The resulting Wadi Hilweh neighborhood stretches over historical Jerusalem's Southeast Hill (sometimes called the Ophel, although the meaning of that term is more vague), extending down from the southern wall of the Old City. On the western site is the Tyropoeon or central valley. The Arabic name of the neighborhood may come from a section of this valley. On the eastern side is the Kidron Valley, known in Arabic by different names, including Wadi Sitti Maryam or the Valley of St. Mary.
Modern history
Late Ottoman period
The area immediately outside the walls of Jerusalem was undeveloped for most of early modern history, with the exception of the village of Silwan. Modern settlement outside of the walls began in the late 19th century. In the Illés Relief, created between 1864 and 1873, there are a few small buildings visible on the hill facing Silwan. In 1873–1874 a member of the notable Jewish Meyuchas family moved to a house towards the bottom of the hill of what has been described as Silwan, but is outside Israel's modern borders of Silwan in what it calls the City of David. The Meyuchas family left the in the 1930s; no other Jewish families are known to have settled in the area during the period.Meron Rapoport, 2009, Ir Amin: "At the beginning of the 20th century, Baron de Rothschild acquired land on the eastern slopes of the Wadi Hilweh hill with the intention of dedicating it to archaeological excavations... As far as we know, during this period, only a single Jewish family lived in Wadi Hilweh itself, in a house known today as the "Meyuhas house," and left during the 1930s."
When archaeological excavation began, the area was referred to as Mount Ophel. In 1911 an amateur archaeologist claimed he had found proof this particular area was the location of the "ancient City of David." The claim led Baron Edmond de Rothschild to purchase land in the area. He directed archaeologist Raymond Weill to investigate the claim, and in 1913 Weill agreed it was the location of the "City of David."
Mandatory Palestine The area continued to be known in English as Mount Ophel during the Mandatory Palestine period. Excavations continued during the Mandate period with the site being referred to unofficially by the local government with archaeologists as "City of David." During the later stages of the Mandate era the houses of the nearby Arab village of Silwan expanded across the Kidron Valley and up the ridge of what became Wadi Hilweh.
Jordanian period After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the whole area fell on the eastern side of the Green Line under Jordanian rule. In 1950, Jordan's Custodian of Enemy confiscated Jewish owned property. Baron Edmond de Rothschild was Jewish, and the confiscation of land he had purchased for archaeological excavations would create problems in future decades. The Jordanian Department of Antiquities continued excavations, announcing a major find from the Jebusite era in 1964. In their archaeological publication, they referred to the "Davidic and Solomonic cities of the Iron Age," but did not use the term "City of David." It was believed at the end of this period that the site "had been picked clean by archeologists over the past century." Prominent British archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon wrote of the three thousand year old city, "Our excavations have revealed little of it. I believe the archaeological evidence for more does not survive.
Post 1967 and Israeli settlement
Arab families continued to live on the ridge and to build houses there after 1967. From 1968 to 1977, the Israel Exploration Society conducted excavations on the hill that rises to the north of the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood led by Benjamin Mazar and Eilat Mazar.Excavations on the South of the Temple Mount. The Ophel of Biblical Jerusalem, Qedem. Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, No. 29, 1989 ISSN 0333-5844 However, it was considered a largely excavated site until the early 1980s. At that point, unexpectedly, a structure was accidentally found that initially appeared to be around the age of the ancient City of David. The discovery marked the start of what had largely been an archaeological dig and minor tourist site turning into a place of angry protests and controversy. Excavation stopped during this period. In 1991, the right wing Ir David Foundation foundation began attempts to claim properties that had been seized by Jordan's Custodian of Enemy property. These could be claimed if the land had not been formally transferred to a new owner. Hundreds of cases were initiated in the area attempting to argue that ownership had of land not been transferred to new owners. Some of these were overturned by the courts and were heavily criticized. According to Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, most of the land transferred to the Jewish National Fund in 1991 had been bought by Baron Rothschild for archaeological purposes, together with "a very small area" purchased by the 19th century Ottoman Jewish community.
According to Ronny Reich, in 1995 no one else at his university would agree to work at the site. The Ir David Foundation controversially won a contract to run the City of David visitor center. However, after the protests in the 1980s, the legal controversy of the early 1990s, and perhaps in part due to an attack on head of the foundation, it does not appear any public company wanted to run the site. The foundation continued to win contract renewals.
The discovery in 2004 of the Pool of Siloam and what might be the remains of the Palace of King David in 2005, led to a major surge of interest in the area. The sites are of importance to both Judaism and Christianity. The small Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood became the scene of massive archaeological exploration, a growth of hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, and Israeli settler activity. This led to a huge growth of criticism and controversy surrounding the archaeology and the foundation.
It had become embroiled in what archaeologist Raphael Greenberg called "the Israeli national project of unifying Jerusalem and the settler project of breaking Palestinian Jerusalem apart", both of which have "joined to disenfranchise the people living above and among the antiquities".
Greenberg noted that, as of 2014, the local settlers were "a tiny, belligerent minority in Silwan", while the "indigenous [Palestinian] community are deprived of their materiality", calling it a "classic case of residual colonialism".
In October 2014, Uri Ariel, politician from The Jewish Home party and at that time Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction, caused controversy when he suggested he was considering taking up residence in the area."Housing Minister Uri Ariel May Move to City of David" , 25 October 2014.
The area was controversially renamed "City of David" by Israel's Jerusalem municipality..
The project also has strong supporters. In 2025, United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said of the project, "Think about the fact that it was hidden for 2000 years, underground, people living their lives on top of it, streets and roads and houses being built above it, nobody understanding that underneath here was maybe the greatest archeological discovery in history."
National Parks
The Jerusalem Walls National Park was declared in 1974 on "a large part of the neighborhood of Silwan." Other parks in East Jerusalem include Tzurim Valley Park in 2000 and in 2013, Mount Scopus Slopes National Park (located between al-'Esawiyah and a-Tur), and Refa'im Stream National Park (on lands belonging to al-Walaja). These parks were approved on privately owned Palestinian lands and in built-up areas or areas bordering the built-up sections of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages. According to B'Tselem these parks are not meant simply to protect nature, landscape and heritage but are also, "perhaps mainly", meant to promote political agendas. By declaring parts of the city as parks entails no development in these areas and serves the political agenda far better than any municipal restrictions on planning and building.