Palestine

Oh, for an ordinary life...

2006-02-14T22:54:00.000+02:00

Two weeks after the latest house demolitions in al-Walaje, one of the families are still living in a Red Cross tent just next to where their house used to stand.

The people of al-Walaje are still struggling desperately to cope with their horrendous situation. The residents have hired lawyers in groups to try and defend their homes. A group of 25 homes were asked by the Israeli Authorities to submit a Zoning Plan. They were told to hire an Architect, something which is extremely expensive, and then submit their plan. In good faith, the residents, desperate to save their homes, hired an architect and submitted their Zoning Plan to the Israeli Courts.

Last Friday, the 10th of February, the Israeli Courts replied to the Zoning Plan for the village which had been submitted. They said that they could not consider it, because the villagers in al-Walaje, who submitted the plan, hold West Bank ID cards, not Jerusalem ID cards. Israel annexed a part of the village in 1967, but didn’t inform the villagers until 1985 that they were not living in ‘Israel’. They now refuse to give the villagers Jerusalem ID cards, despite the fact that the villagers, who are refugees from 1948, have owned their land and lived on it since well before 1967, when it was illegally annexed. (See post of February 1st).

Now that the submission of a Zoning Plan has been rejected, and there is no possibility for the residents to submit another one, they expect the 25 homes to be demolished very soon.

All of this is, as usual with Israel, contrary to international law and treaties. The rule of law, either domestically or internationally, does not and will not ever work unless there are sanctions or punishments for those who break the rules. Where are the punishments for Israel? Who is willing to stand up and take a stand? Obviously not world leaders, so who will help the people of al-Walaje?

the ethnic cleansing continues...

2006-02-01T22:15:00.000+02:00

Two more houses demolished. Eleven more people homeless. Eleven more lives ruined. Another village petrified. Another 50 households wondering when their turn will come.

All in a day’s work for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Two more houses in the village Palestinian of al-Walaje, just outside Bethlehem, were demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces, on 31st of January, the Islamic New Year. (A new year’s present, as one resident of the village explained to me.) The bulldozers arrived at 12 noon, and were all gone by 2pm. The bulldozers were accompanied by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israeli Police from the municipality of Jerusalem and Israeli Border Police, who all descended on the village.

The first house to be demolished didn’t even have a demolition order on it. The inhabitants, Munther Salim, his wife Siham and their three children, hired a lawyer because so many houses in their village had demolition orders on them. They were assured by their lawyer just two weeks previously that he had received promises from the Israeli authorities that their house would not be touched. Because of their difficult economic situation, they could not afford to build a house on the land which Siham inherited from her father when he died nearly 20 years ago. Despite this, four years ago, with both financial and practical help from the community, a house was built for the family. The family were both full of shock and questions and sat on the remains of their house in tears. ‘We want to live in peace, but there is no peace here, how can we live like this? Where shall I go? To a camp? To spend all of my life in a refugee camp?’ Siham asked me. I admit I was lost for answers. Siham’s young niece asked me, ‘What would happen if I went to Jerusalem and demolished an Israeli house, where Jewish people lived. The whole world would stand behind Israel and call us terrorists, wouldn’t they? Why is it different for us? Who was this house hurting? How does this house harm the security of Israel?’

I’d like everyone reading this to, just for one moment, imagine, genuinely try and imagine what it would feel like if a foreign country’s police force came to your door and told you that they were about to demolish your house, ordered you out of the house, took out all of your things, and half an hour later started the demolition. Then left.

The second house, which was demolished immediately after the first, belonged to Mohammad Faraj, and was inhabited by his relatives: an elderly couple, their daughter and grandson, and two other relatives, one of whom is blind. The house was built in 1995, and was promptly declared illegal by the Israeli authorities because it didn’t have a building permit. (Palestinians simply do not receive building permits from Israel, so they are either forced to live in overcrowded areas, or become criminals, or of course leave the country which is exactly what Israel wants). The fine for building this ‘illegal’ house was 20,000 Shekels ($4,350) – more than an average family in Palestine earns in a year. The fine was and still is being paid in monthly instalments, and the fine still stands, and must be paid in full, despite the fact that the house has been demolished.
The elderly inhabitants of their house have already had one house demolished, in the same villages, years before, and after that demolition they moved to this house. Their daughter also moved to this house after her previous house was demolished. She lived in Jenin with her husband, who was killed in the Jenin Massacre of 2002, and the next year her house was demolished, with all her possessions inside. Homeless and almost penniless she moved to al-Walaje to be with her parents. On the day of the demolition, she had been working in Bethlehem, and came home to find her possessions scattered on her yard and her house in pieces, again.

The owner of the house tapped me on the shoulder as we were assessing the remains of his home, and pointed to West Jerusalem, which you can see from the village, and pointed to the cranes building housing there. ‘You see these houses, they’re building for Jews all the time. Can I move into one of those houses? No, because I’m a Palestinian. Can I build a house on my own land? No, because I’m a Palestinian. Where are we meant to live?’

Unbelieveably, the tragic story of the village does not end there, because not only are the vast majority of the houses there ‘illegal’, but so are the people, in the eyes of the Israeli state. Because of the proximity of the village to the Green Line – the border between Israel and Palestine – when Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, it also illegally annexed half of al-Walaje village. It did, however, seem to forget to inform the inhabitants that they were now living in ‘Israel’. The inhabitants of al-Walaje had always paid their taxes to Bethlehem and received their municipal services to Bethlehem, but in 1985, Israeli authorities came to the village, demolished a house, declaring it illegal construction in Israel. It then informed the residents that they were illegally resident in Israel, and that if they wanted a Jerusalem / Israeli ID card then they had to prove that they lived there before 1967 (ideas on a postcard please?). Therefore, the residents of half of the village can be arrested simply for being in or stepping out of their houses, for being in ‘Israel’ without a permit from the Israeli authorities. Many have been arrested for this very reason. Out of the 100 houses in the annexed area, 75 were given demolition orders, and 25 of those have now been executed, plus one which didn’t have a demolition order. 50 homes are still to be demolished. The villagers of al-Walaje are waiting petrified, not knowing who will be next, or when the bulldozers will next invade their village.

War crimes, such as the demolition of civilian homes, amongst many others, occur on a daily basis in occupied Palestine. The people of this country want to live in peace, but are under a brutal military occupation. Whilst the world reflects on the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, maybe everyone should be considering why people join or vote for Hamas. What effect will the house demolitions have on the people of this village, especially the young people? Who will they grow up supporting?

Democratic elections in Palestine

2006-01-28T15:21:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday the 25th of January, elections took place in occupied Palestine, for the Palestinian Legislative Council. It was the second ever elections to the Council, the first having taken place 10 years ago. The elections were widely seen a huge success, and the Palestinian Central Elections Committee is to be congratulated for its work. Were they totally free and fair however? No, because Palestine is under occupation, and no elections can be free under occupation because the occupier has an influence over the elections.

As an international observer for the elections, I was privileged to have access to all stages of the voting process. With a team of colleagues, I traveled around the rural villages outside the city of Jenin in the north of the West Bank, and was extremely impressed by the electoral process. Apart from a few minor discrepancies, which exist in all elections throughout the world, in this case the violations were regarding campaigning outside of polling stations, the electoral rules seemed to be impeccably followed. Everything was extremely organized, and there were many local observers from NGOs and political parties, and an excited and interested atmosphere among all the Palestinians we met on Wednesday. This view was confirmed by the other election observers at a UN debriefing the following day: people were generally very impressed with the conduct of the electoral staff, and people who have observed numerous elections across the world were also very impressed with the standard of the procedures. However, it was a different story in Jerusalem. Israel decided before the elections that only 6,300 of the 120,000 eligible voters in East Jerusalem, the capital of occupied Palestine, could vote in Jerusalem itself, the rest had to leave Jerusalem, through military checkpoints, to vote. Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 despite the fact that international law states clearly that it is occupied Palestinian land. However, because Israel has ‘sovereignty’ over East Jerusalem, it decided to make it incredibly difficult for Palestinians there to exercise their basic democratic rights.

There are 120,000 eligible voters in East Jerusalem, and there, like in every other city in Palestine, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) of Palestine opened an office to register voters for the upcoming elections. The Israeli Police, however, decided that trying to encourage people to exercise democracy is unacceptable, and arrested the staff of the CEC working in the office, took down the ID numbers of everyone who registered, and then destroyed the records of the CEC.

Palestinians attempting to enter the boundaries of Jerusalem, which are defined by Israel alone, were stopped if they were in a car with any campaign material on them. They were made to get out of the car and take any posters, flags or stickers off the car. Some soldiers took photos of people in the cars, threatening to take them to court. There were various reasons given by the soldiers for removing campaign material. One said that 'we don't allow propaganda in Israel' – I should alert them to the platform of most Israeli political parties – another said that they were 'enforcing the Palestinian election law of no campaigning on polling day'. Do the Israeli police really care if Palestinian electoral law is implemented, or was this simply harassment of Palestinians for the sake of it?

In Jerusalem itself, in the post offices, in which Palestinians had to vote (Israel refused to open polling stations for them) there was no guarantee whatsoever for the privacy of voters. They were not allowed to use screens to ensure their ballot was secret, so people could see who they were voting for. The post offices were too small for the number of voters, and despite the recommendation of the Palestinian CEC and international observers from the 2005 Presidential elections, Israel refused to open more temporary post offices, so people were queuing and could see who everyone else was voting for. International observers and postal clerks could see who people voted for. Voters were not even allowed to place their own ballots into the ballot box – Israel insisted that this was done by Israeli post office staff.

There was also an issue with regard to the training of staff in the post offices. When issues arose, such as ballot boxes being full, it was often left to the international observers to find a solution to the problems. Perhaps this can be traced to the fact that the CEC were not allowed to train the postal staff, they had to train trainers who trained the staff, who only had a day of training.
The post office near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City was moved from the regular post office to a small portable booth close to but not visible from the post office, but there was only a very small sign in black and white in the window of the post office to say that it had been moved. Some international observers could not find the voting station and so asked the post office staff, who simply didn’t know where it was. One international observer remarked 'If I had been a Palestinian due to vote there, I wouldn't have voted, because I couldn't find where to vote.'

In the main post office in East Jerusalem, on Salah-ah Din street, some boxes, when they were full, were put into a locked room. The Israeli postal staff refused to use the tags to seal the boxes, as is specified by Palestinian electoral law, and instead used simply tape, and refused international observers access to the room to see the boxes.

Because of the number of people who had to vote in East Jerusalem post offices, voting had to be extended beyond 7pm, to 9pm. However, because the post offices are under Israel’s control, the Israeli Minister of Communications had to make the decision, but didn’t make a decision until the very last minute, and at 7:20 there was still confusion as to whether people would be allowed to vote because no clear decision had been made by the Israeli Ministry. Many people who were waiting to vote or hoping to vote left because they didn’t know what was happening, and the delays in the decision implied that the polling station would close and thus missed their opportunity to vote.

In a post office in the Old City of Jerusalem, a right wing Member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Effie Eitam from the National Union Party came accompanied by a large group of settlers and demanded to enter the post office to buy stamps, because in his mind it is “an Israeli post office in Israel”, to protest the fact that Palestinian elections were being held in East Jerusalem.

In other cities, such as Hebron, many of the roadblocks placed by the Israeli Army were not removed, so it became very difficult for people to go back and forth to polling stations. International observers, to reach some polling stations, had to walk through fields. That would put someone off voting, don’t you think?

Despite the attempts of the Israeli authorities, the Palestinian people have exercised their democratic rights, and they have spoken with a resounding voice. The Islamic Resistance Movement, better known by the acronym Hamas, won a resounding victory, winning 76 out of 132 seats, a result which no-one, not even Hamas themselves, expected. The result must now be accepted and the new situation dealt with.

One of the problems with democracy is that you don’t always get the result you expect or want. The idea of not talking to, negotiating with, or funding a Hamas-led government is extremely concerning. What message of democracy does it send to people across the world if the western world strongly advocates democratic elections in Palestine, and when the Palestinians hold democratic elections, everyone ignores who they choose. The primary condition which is put upon Hamas most often is that they must renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. This shows yet another western double standard. None of the big Israeli parties – Labour, Kadima or Likud, will renounce the use of violence by the Israeli army against resistance fighters or civilians, and none will recognize the right of Palestine to exist within the land which it legally deserves under international law, so why are Hamas being asked to renounce violence and accept Israel’s existence. Hamas, for everyone’s sake, must be accepted and dealt with.

Congratulations to Palestine – the only democracy in the Middle East.

Elections under occupation

2006-01-21T17:30:00.000+02:00

Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections are scheduled to take place on Wednesday....under occupation.

Whilst there will be many international election observers deployed across the West Bank and Gaza, no election can be entirely free or fair when a country is not yet liberated.

Take East Jerusalem as an example, the capital of occupied Palestine. In East Jerusalem there are 115,000 registered voters. At first, Israel said that it would not allow Palestinians in East Jerusalem to vote in the PLC elections, because they see the area as Israel, even though they do not let the Palestinians in East Jerusalem vote in elections for the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. (What kind of democracy leaves over a hundred thousand people in limbo like that?) Eventually, under international pressure and because of calls from Abu Mazen, the Palestinian President, that there would be no elections without Jerusalem, Israel backed down. However, only 6,300 Palestinians will be able to vote in Jerusalem itself. Israel has said that they may vote in post offices (not polling stations), and the other 108,700 will have to go outside of the city borders (as defined by Israel) to vote. Therefore Palestinians, whose travel is restricted immensely anyway are being asked to leave their city to go to another one to vote, through time-consuming and humiliating checkpoints, on a day of work. Free and fair? I think not.
There are also grave worries that the Israeli authorities, who will be able to see who is voting, and who is leaving Jerusalem that day, will use the fact that a Palestinian voted in the PLC elections to inflict reprisals on them, or to confiscate their Jerusalem ID card. Such a prospect is so worrying for Palestinians in Jerusalem, that many will simply choose not to vote.

Who knows how many others will not be allowed through checkpoints to get to their polling stations on the 25th, there are only so many checkpoints the international observers can be stationed on.

Add this to the fact that Hamas are not even allowed to appear on the ballot for Jerusalem voters.

Hopefully the Palestinian elections will be a success, and hopefully they will, broadly speaking, represent the will of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. Free and fair, however? Not under occupation.

Israel's secret desire for a Hamas victory.

2006-01-18T23:23:00.000+02:00

For weeks I'd wondered if I was confused, cynical or was missing something.

But an article in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, from yesterday really seemed to confirm my thoughts - Israel really does want Hamas to win the elections.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=671878&contrassID=2

The article above clearly explains how Israel has acted as a terrific campaign manager for Hamas. In short, by opposing their participation they strengthened Hamas' profile as the enemy of Israel and as the one party who is definitely not collaborating with the occupiers. By talking about the issue of their participation constantly they have kept Hamas in the news, and by arresting their candidates in Jerusalem they have given Hamas free publicity. This is combined with years upon years of Israel not making serious or even token concessions to the moderate Fatah, thereby allowing Hamas to become stronger.

I think that there are three possible conclusions when such actions and the article are studied.

A) That Israeli public opinion is so extreme on this issue, that the government had no choice.

B) That they did not see the consequences of their actions or

C) They want Hamas to win.

I can only find the third conclusion convincing. Israeli public opinion on Jerusalem is often misconceived. Polls of people throughout the country show that the majority of Israelis are willing to accept Palestinian sovereingty over parts of Jerusalem in a peace deal, and also that many Israelis believe that Israel must try to negotiate with Hamas. Israel has an extremely vocal right wing which opposes both of these, but such views are not shared by the wider public opinion.

I simply can't believe that Israel just didn't see the effects of what they were doing. I'm no expert political analyst, and I could see what was happening a long time ago, and that Israel's policies were strengthening Hamas. Israel has been so meticulous in its treatment of the Palestinians and assesses every outcome so closely that I don't think this is possible.

The only conclusion I find satisfactory is that Israel wants Hamas to win, and this is not just by process of elimination. A Hamas victory or strong showing makes life so much easier for Israel. We're all back at the 'there's no partner for peace' stage. If Israel says there's no 'partner for peace', then people will accept it, and so Israel will have to act unilaterally and it will do what it always does, what is best for the Jewish people of Israel. In fact, with Hamas in power, massive portions of Palestinian society can also be disregarded as not wanting peace, equally useful to the Israeli government.

If the Israeli Government had a vote, I know which box would be crossed.

An update from Hebron

2006-01-13T09:37:00.000+02:00

This article is from www.imemc.org - The International Middle East Media Centre, which is based in Beit Sahour. It is an excellent news service which gives very regular updates about all that goes on in occupied Palestine:

Extremist settlers torched two Palestinian homes in the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday in protest at evacuating them from shops they occupied in the city's market. No injuries were reported in the attack.

Earlier this month, eight settler families, who took over eight Palestinian stores, at a market in the West Bank city of Hebron, were handed out eviction notices by representatives of the Israeli Civil Administration Office.

Dozens of settlers confronted with the soldiers, and police officers, who accompanied the officials, and threw water, flour and eggs at them; Settlers claimed that violence was initiated by the soldiers.

The eight Palestinian stores were occupied by the settlers in 2001; the Hebron municipality appealed the Israeli High Court to evacuate them; the court ordered their evacuation but the army did not implement the court ruling.

Israeli media sources reported that eviction orders demands the settler families to evacuate the stores by January 15.

The settlers, who were informed in advance of the intentions of the Civil Administration Office to hand them the eviction orders, said in a press release before receiving the orders that they "will resist, and reject the evacuation".

The settler families controlled the Palestinian stores and turned them into homes after expelling their owners; they claim that the land belongs to Jewish families which lived there before 1929.

The Israeli High Court of Justice recently ordered security forces to evacuate the settlers from the market after they were unable to provide proof that they owned the property.

Settlement activities in Hebron started after Israeli occupied the West Bank in 1967; settlers carried repeated attacks against Palestinian families in the city and expelled them.

Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, ordered the soldiers to implement a court decision to evacuate the settlers from the Palestinian owned buildings, in addition to two other West Bank outposts.

Dozens of settlers live in one of the illegal outposts called Hill 725, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, and five settler families are living in Skali's Farm" near Elon Moreh settlement, in addition to a few settler families living in " Arusi's Farm".

The army is expected to implement the raze orders in the near future, an Israeli military source reported.

Settlers began, on Thursday at night, to prevent the evacuation of the illegal outposts, expected in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army froze a plan for a wide-scale operation against illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. Soldiers intend to demolish nine homes in the Amouna illegal settlement outpost, near Ofra settlement, north of the West Bank.

The raze orders were issued by the Israeli High Court after the residents long with several human rights organization appealed against the outpost which was installed on Palestinian private lands.

The Israeli army is expecting clashes with the extremist settlers during the evacuation of the illegal outposts.

Hebron and the al-Awiwa family.

2006-01-11T15:52:00.000+02:00

The city of Hebron is unique in Palestine. It is the only city in which Israeli settlers live in the heart of the city, rather than on the outskirts or the hills surrounding it. Approximately 500 fundamentalist, virilently racist illegal Jewish settlers live in the heart of a city of around 150,000 Palestinians.

Because of this situation, when, during the Oslo ‘peace process’ the question of Hebron came up, a special arrangement was made for it. The Palestinian Authority would control 80% of Hebron (known as H1), and Israel would continue to have full control of the remaining 20%, (known as H2), which contains 35,000 Palestinians, all of the settlements, and the Abraham Mosque, the fourth holiest site in Islam, which the settlers also see as sacred because of the tombs which lie inside.

Life has become extremely difficult for the Palestinians living in H2. They live alongside the settlers, who live without any real rule of law. An example is when Rabbi Levinger from one of the settlements entered the old city with a handgun, killed one Palestinian and injured two others. His punishment? Six months community service.

The old market, which used to be the thriving centre of the city, is now a ghost town. Many of the road were shut to Palestinians, because of their proximity to the (illegal) settler homes. Road blocks were placed at the entrance to market streets, meaning that Palestinians could not drive to those areas, limiting severely both the ability of the market-owners to move their goods to and from their stalls, and also making it difficult for Palestinians to get to the shops.
There are also many areas of H2 which are only open to Palestinians who live there, so no friends or family can come to visit their family.
Some areas of the city are simply off limits to Palestinians, because they are Palestinians.

The settlers in Hebron believe that Hebron is a Jewish city, and that the Palestinians are the occupiers, not them. They behave in a way according to their views. Some of their houses overlook the Palestinian market, and they throw rubbish onto the Palestinians, who have now had to put up a net to protect them. They also throw open beer bottles and cans onto the Palestinians of this very religious mulsim city. The settlers have also been known to urinate on the Palestinians, both in the market and in their own gardens, and to throw faeces onto the Palestinians. Palestinians, including children, are also regularly pelted with food and stones when going about their daily lives.

The Israeli Army, which is there to ‘protect the settlers’, who themselves are often armed, rarely lifts a finger to do anything, as they do not see it as their responsibility to protect the Palestinians. It is important to note that the Jewish settlers could not live in Hebron like they do without the support of the Israeli government. After all, it is the Israeli government which deploys the Army there, it is the Israeli government who sanctions them living there. It is the Israeli government which has the power to evacuate the settlers. The Israeli government is, therefore, indirectly responsible for the crimes which are committed by the settlers in Hebron, and all over the West Bank.

To these horrific circumstances must then be added the effects of the intifada on the Palestinian population: closures, curfews, checkpoints, harassment from soldiers, economic decline and virtually no freedom of movement.

Some families, despite the woeful situation in H2 have continued to live there. I was lucky enough to meet one of the families. Nidal farid al-'Awiwa and his family live in the old city of Hebron, known as the Casbah, and thus live under full Israeli control. The family also has the misfortune to live directly next to the Avriham Avinu settlement in Hebron, and his house has been, for a long time, the target of the illegal Jewish settlers, as they attempt to expand their dwellings even further.

Because of this unfortunate location, the al-‘Awiwa family has been subject to extreme persecution, which has taken the form of almost constant harassment which aims to force them to flee or sell their house to the settlers.

Even before the second intifada, they were subject to incredible persecution. On the 28th of August 1998, both Nidal and his wife needed hospital treatment, and wanted their children to be seen in hospital as well, for burns and smoke inhalation, when settlers from the neighbouring settlement set fire to the bottom of the building in which they live. Unfortunately, they could not reach the hospital, because settlers attacked the driver of their ambulance.

Since the beginning of the second Intifada, this campaign has intensified, and the circumstances for the family became even more problematic. The Palestinian residents of the Old City of Hebron were placed under curfew for 388 days, starting in 2002. For those who are not familiar with the Israeli policy of curfew, in this form, it means that you simply cannot leave your house…at all…until the Army says you can. Sometimes you are allowed an hour every so often to go and buy food, sometimes this doesn't happen, and people are forced to try and smuggle food to the families, or they break the curfew, at the risk of arrest or even death by snipers, to try and get food for their family. The Israeli settlers (who live in the same area illegally), were not subject to the curfew. This meant that no Palestinian from the Old City of Hebron could get to their jobs. Nidal, who used to work at a car dealership before it was closed down due to the intifada, was an employee at Hebron Municipality, located well out of the Old City, therefore lost the main source of income of the family, due to the curfew. The economic situation for him and his family is now, imaginably, very desperate, they eat the ‘minimum necessary food’.

His family was also to suffer more trauma when, in August 2002, a soldier pushed his 14 year old son, Sa’id into a steel gate, fracturing his skull, and hospitalising him.

Just a month later, a settler threw a 3kg rock at his three year old son, Ghazi, while he was riding his bike outside their house. His son’s bone in his upper leg was broken in two places and he also was hospitalised.

In December of the same year, the Israeli Army decided to blockade his house, and piled up dirt and stones outside of his house, so high that they weren’t even able to open their gate. For four whole days nobody could leave or enter the house. Not even two of Nidal’s young daughters, Sa’ad and Sohan, aged 8 and 6 respectively, who were at school when the blockade was put in place, were allowed to enter their house or see their family for four days.

As the family were trapped in their house, which has been in the family for over 150 years, the Israeli settlers regularly hurled Molotov cocktails at their house. Inevitably, this recurring practice will have huge psychological effects on all of the family. All of Nidal's children, indeed all of the children from the Old City area, now go to psychologists twice a week, courtesy of the Norwegian government, because of the appalling mental health of the Palestinian children. The children now have to walk in a large group to school, it is no longer safe for them to walk alone or in small groups, and they are regularly accompanied by peace groups working in the area, who try to prevent the children from being attacked by settlers on their way to and from school, which is also a regular occurrence.

Nidal and his wife, parents of seven, have also lost one of his children during the second Intifada. One of his sons was in an ambulance with his mother, and the ambulance was stopped at a checkpoint, and the Israeli soldiers wouldn't allow the ambulance to pass for such an extremely long time, despite the protests of the ambulance workers and Nidal's wife; the child died.

The ordeal is continuing for the family. Soldiers visit their house, on average, a few times every week, often searching the house or detaining the inhabitants.

Yet, showing incredible courage, Nidal and his family remain in Hebron. They have been offered $1.5 million for their home by the settlers, but they refuse to leave. Without taking money from the settlers, which they are not prepared to do, they cannot afford to live anywhere else. They are determined to play their role in protecting the City from the expansion of the illegal settlements.

When I met Nidal, I asked him what he hoped for his children. He raised his hand and smiled, he has no hope for his children and can see no future, but he knows that they have to stay. 'I want a better life for them, but I have no idea how that will happen.'

The next time you hear that it is Israel who really wants peace...think of Hebron.

(Yet) another house demolished in Palestine

2006-01-05T18:54:00.000+02:00

During the Nakhba (the catastrophe), when the State of Israel was created within historic Palestine, and 700,000 Palestinians fled or were chased from their homes there were few people – if anyone - unaffected. The residents of the village of Al-Walaje were no exception to this. They fled from their homes from the oncoming Zionist militias and, when the fighting stopped, found themselves in the West Bank, just outside of the new Israeli State. So, as so many had to do, they started from scratch, and built a new village, from which they can see the border between Israel and occupied Palestine.

Yesterday, on the 4th of January, 2006, one of the 80 houses in Al-Walaje, just outside Bethlehem, was demolished by the Israeli ‘Defence’ Forces.

Of the 80 houses in the village, 53 have demolition orders on then. The reason given – that they were built illegally without permits. Ostensibly, this may even sound fair, every country needs to control the people living under its control, and you can’t just build houses illegally, can you?

The problem for Palestinians under Israeli control is that they cannot build houses legally either. Israel issues so few permits for Palestinians to build, that they are faced with the prospect of chronic overcrowding and the separation of their families or of becoming criminals and building ‘illegal’ houses. They are forced to become criminals.

So, these ‘illegal’ houses, which have been standing for years and decades in the same spot peacefully were visited in March 2005 with demolition orders, and told that at any point within the next 18 months they would be demolished.

The house which was demolished this morning belongs to Ali and Ibtisam Abu Risik, who have four sons, between the ages of one and seven. They are a relatively poor family, who, even when they lived in the house, could not afford electricity or running water. Because of their economic situation, they couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer to defend the house against the demolition order, and so had to face up to the prospect that they were going to lose their home. They desperately starting searching for a solution, and began to live in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, as they couldn’t bear simply to wait for the army to come knocking at their door.

The Israeli Army, true to its promise, at 6:30 this morning, sent soldiers, military jeeps and bulldozers into the village and by 7:00 they had reached, surrounded and fenced off the house slated for demolition. They checked the house for explosives, and started demolishing the house at 7:25 in the morning. By 7:28, just three minutes later, the house was a pile of rubble. Within 180 seconds, a home was destroyed, a family lost their most valuable property and their place in their community amongst friends, and the hope that they would be allowed to live peacefully on their own land.

Lives were destroyed this morning in Al-Walaje.

Don’t think for a second that the family will ever receive compensation. (The house was ‘illegal’ remember?)

Don’t think that Israel is allowed, under international law, to carry out such demolitions. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention the demolition of civilian houses during military occupation is forbidden.

Don’t think that Israel won’t try to annex the land for itself, as their wall of apartheid winds through Palestinian land, trying to take as much land as possible, with as few Palestinians as possible.

The number of houses demolished by Israel since the occupation began in 1967 creeps slowly ever closer to 12,000. Over 70,000 people have lost their homes because of this policy.

As the villagers in Al-Walaje were awoken by, or watched on their way to work, the soldiers, jeeps and bulldozers entering their village, I personally struggle to imagine how much must have been going through their minds, but I guess it was something like the following: ‘Is it my house today? My brother’s, or sister’s house, or my child’s house, how many houses will be demolished today, how many lives in this village are going to be ruined, which part of our community is going to be destroyed.’ Of course, now that this one has been demolished (the 24th in 10 years in Al-Walaje village), everyone is nervously waiting, wondering, when their house will be demolished. The next door neighbour of the house which was demolished, who was awoken by the entrance of about 80 soldiers and 25 military jeeps into her village, described to me how the soldiers chanted ‘1,2,3,’ in Hebrew and then cheered as the demolition process began. The soldiers were also heard to be laughing raucously during the process. She said that every day and every night she believes she will see the images she saw this morning. The same is probably true for her four young children.

How many more homes have to be destroyed, how many more lives have to be ruined, before people wake up to the true actions of the Israeli state?