JERUSALEM — Born and raised in East Jerusalem’s restive Silwan neighborhood, the community activist Daoud al-Ghoul is no stranger to the capricious nature of life under military occupation.
Like most Palestinians in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967, the 31-year-old is accustomed to unequal housing and planning rights, neglected infrastructure and the slow but steady expansion of Israeli settlers, and with them violence, in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. Nonetheless, Ghoul, who works as a youth programs coordinator with the Health Work Committees, a Jerusalem-based nongovernmental organization, said his deportation came as a complete surprise.