ICAHD: “Where shall I go now?”

A wave of house demolitions in East Jerusalem
Lucia and Angela of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (www.icahd.org)

Again yesterday, houses were demolished in East Jerusalem. In the early morning the bulldozers moved into the neighborhood of Isawiyya, where they demolished a gas station. Then, they moved towards the neighborhood of Tel al Ful in Beit Hanina, were volunteers and staff from ICAHD where present at the site of the houses of Bassam Ramlawi and Nur al Din Damiri. At 9 a.m., dozens of police jeeps and ambulances appeared on top of the hill, and started to move down toward the houses. Two Israeli activists, Amnon and Shai, chained themselves to the fence on both sides of the dirt road leading to the houses, trying to block the passage of the many vehicles. However, when they saw the massive presence of border police and particularly the yamam (Special Forces) coming their direction, they knew it was hopeless and decided to unchain themselves. They feared they would be beaten up by the yamam, who have a reputation of being particularly violent. Even before they had the chance to totally remove the chains from the fence, members of the police cut open the locks which fastened the chains together.

Police then spread out to secure the area, and female border police tried to remove Amal Ramlawi from the doorway of her home. When she resisted, more Information Center filming and photographing the demolitions, where told to move away by the army. One of them refused, and after a short argument and pushing, was eventually removed and dragged up the hill, where he was asked to stand at a distance from the house. Amal was also finally removed from the house. Next, two orange Daewoo bulldozers appeared on the hilltop and started descending towards the houses. At 9:30, they began their work, demolishing the house of Bassam Ramlawi.

Meanwhile, at the house of Nur al Din Damiri, the family had been up since 2 a.m., removing their belongings from their modest two room house. The foreign workers, who were contracted to remove furniture from the houses, found themselves without work. At 9:54, the second bulldozer moved towards the house, and began to demolish it. Nur and his wife Ataf where standing at a safe distance from the house, watching the destruction of their home. It took the bulldozer exactly 7 minutes to demolish the house and dig up the foundation, thereby making 6 people homeless for the second time in two years. Nur worked for the Jerusalem police for 28 years, which didn’t prevent the exact same police from making him homeless twice. Out of desperation, Nur shouted at the police and soldiers in perfect Hebrew, asking them where he and his family would now go; a very valid question considering that all resources, both financial and personal, have run out.

At 10:25, the bulldozers had completed their work, and began climbing up the hill, leaving 4 adults and 13 children homeless. From there, they moved on to the Wadi al Dam area in Beit Hanina, where they demolished another two uninhabited structures.

Today three houses were demolished by the Ministry for the Interior. A house in A-Tur belonged to the Abu Sneineh family; amongst those now without a roof over their heads are three handicapped children. Bravo, Ministry for the Interior. The other two demolitions were in Ashkariya, Beit Hanina. The names and details are still unknown to us, but the Ministry for the Interior is no doubt proud of its fine work and wouldn’t want such a small detail to prevent us from celebrating. Let the Ministry for the Interior triumph!

We are at the beginning of a huge wave of new demolitions, judging from the examples of today and yesterday (9 buildings in two days); not to mention that in Silwan the municipality still has cancelled neither the project nor the demolition orders. ICAHD is extremely concerned that as the “Disengagement” from Gaza approaches closer, so
will the number of house demolitions rise. We are worried that the media may be becoming less and less sensitive to the issue of house demolitions apart from two Palestinian photographers, no press arrived today or yesterday, despite the notice going out to everyone. The even more worrying issue is that many diplomats, politicians and journalists seem to believe the official Israeli line that houses built “illegally” should be demolished and there is therefore no issue here.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions would remind everyone that the silence on the part of those who are aware of the situation, probably due to the fact that so much else is happening (that day’s new crisis) is what allows the Municipality, the IDF and the Ministry for the Interior to continue these immoral and dangerous policies which so harm the chances for peace.

The day after

ISM Nablus
July 4th

It’s several days since the Israeli army’s large daylight invasion of Nablus and the surrounding refugee camps. While there is much speculation, there has been no official word on the reason for the operation.

What can be said with certainty is that it was clearly not within the terms or the spirit of the ceasefire. Further, the scale of the invasions shows that it could not have been an abuse committed by a single group of soldiers. To mobilize tens of ground vehicles, a drone, apache helicopters and F-16s requires the authority of somebody relatively senior. Someone with rank and responsibility, someone aware of the consequences of invading a town in the heart of the West Bank of Palestine. Someone who knew they were audaciously and conspicuously breaching the peace in front of television cameras. Someone with a mind like that of Ariel Sharon, who once stood at an Islamic holy site willfully provoking Palestinians. Sadly, the lack of response from outside powers shows that the Israeli tacticians and their troops have also, once again, acted with impunity.

While the world ignores the wrongs committed against them, the people of Nablus are continuing to live with the hardships to which they have become accustomed. This town has suffered terribly. While there has been no respite from the nightly incursions, the arrests and assassinations, the harsh socioeconomic sanctions or the indignity of the checkpoints, the full scale military attacks have abated since the Sharm Al Sheikh talks. Although there were no killings and no home demolitions in this invasion, the effects were real and lingered beyond the time the troops withdrew.

A whole generation, in a place where children are more than half of the population, is being raised with one experience dominating the formative years, that of witnessing death and destruction at the hands of an army invading their streets. According to a survey of the relatively privileged Bir Zeit University students, 18% had personally witnessed the killing of classmate by the Israeli army. In a place like Balata refugee camp, all the children will have seen homes turned to dust by missiles, bulldozers or explosives. Many will have seen charred bodies in the rubble, or classmates gunned down in their homes or schoolrooms, or brothers martyred or parents imprisoned. All will have seen the adults in their family humiliated by teenage soldiers. After this latest invasion we heard our neighbors’ children crying all night as those memories were reawakened. The youth of this society, its future, is scarred.

The adults too are deeply affected. When the army came, everyone stopped work and fretted about a resumption of the big invasions. “All this is not for nothing,” we heard people repeatedly comment on the presence of scores of soldiers, “This is a big operation, they will kill lots of people.” or, “They will shell us tonight,” they speculated. We waited, watching jeeps and hummers for five hours, tense and alert, preparing for the attack. When they left, we thought of the apache still above and wondered if it would fire. We waited and worried, only occasionally actually assisting medics and the sick. Mostly we all just waited, thoughts and feelings dominated by the lurking army. The next day, anxious and sleep deprived, residents were dazed or fractious. Violence between youths noticeably increased.

The damage is long lasting. If the people are not now given respite from the military harassment or the resources to rebuild their society, the damage will be irreparable.

Letters from Rafah

Written by K and M

Special greetings again from Rafah. There is just no way to describe life here at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. We are the only International people in all of Rafah and the news has traveled fast and everyone knows we are here.

This afternoon all of us, along with our two interpreters went over to the Block O neighborhood which is just a short distance from the building where our apartments are located. M, the young man who is serving as translator for the men, lived in Block O before it was destroyed by the Israelis in 2004.

We had visited Block O the first week we were in Rafah and were shocked by the level of destruction. M showed us the mosque where he and his friends would go to pray mosque that was all but demolished. He told us they used to play football in the square in front of the mosque. Now they call it the “Square of Death”. We could not venture close to the wall for fear of being shot without warning. I worry about the children who are not allowed to be children.

While we were climbing among the ruins of Block O, some of M’s friends from the university walked by and invited us to visit his home. We walked along a street strewn with rubble (I didn’t think anyone could possibly be living on this street) and entered a courtyard. It too was a mass of rubble. I noticed a piece of tile that may well have been someone’s living room or kitchen.) From this courtyard of destruction we entered a small yard that was like another world. Roses and other flowers were blooming in a small garden. Several large pieces of cloth created a shady tent-like structure.

Before long, S brought out the usual assortment of lawn chairs and we were joined by his parents, a brother, several young nieces and a number of young boys from the area. We have not gone anywhere in Rafah without attracting a cadre of preadolescent boys.

This family lives at the very edge of the pile of rubble that is now Block O. The mother of the family was a very animated woman who spoke her mind. She told us that she lives in fear of her family’s home being destroyed just as most of the other Block O homes were. The family home is not too far from one of the Israeli “security” towers and we did hear shooting from the tower while we were with the family.

This family also asked us questions as United States citizens. They asked us if we thought Muslims were terrorists and what we thought about U.S. efforts to “export” its brand of democracy around the world. They also expressed their dismay that George Bush was elected president. A number of people have asked us about the election. They can’t understand how a democratic nation would choose someone like Bush. The father of this family had the saddest face I have seen, and in Rafah, we have seen many very sad faces. The image that stays with me from our afternoon is Block O is the roses blooming in this
most unlikely of places. Maybe peace will come to this troubled land in some unlikely way.

Allegations against Bili’in protest crumble in court

By Meron Rapaport
July 4th
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/595283.html

Are the demonstrations in Bili’in against the separation fence really non-violent, as claimed by their Palestinian and Israeli organizers, or are they in fact violent protests involving the throwing of stones, as charged by the Israel Defense Forces?

As expected, ever since the demonstrations there began, both sides have offered conflicting versions on the issue. Last week, however, a military court ruled that at least in the case before it, IDF soldiers had opened fire while Palestinians and Israelis were demonstrating in a non-violent manner and had not thrown stones. Military Judge Captain Daniel Zamir called for an examination of “the actions of the troops at the scene and the use of the force at its disposal.”

In recent months, the demonstrations in Bili’in have become the focal point of clashes between the IDF and Palestinians over the separation fence. Last Friday saw one such demonstration, with the IDF reporting that one soldier was moderately hurt and the demonstrators reporting 16 injuries, including four Israelis and one disabled individual, by IDF gunfire. A month or so ago, soldier Michael Schwartzman was struck by a rock during a demonstration in Bili’in, resulting in the loss of sight in one eye.

Last Friday, as usual, the Palestinians charged that the shooting started without any provocation on the part of the demonstrators, while the IDF claimed that the shooting began “only after the demonstrators continued to throw stones at the troops despite efforts to end the incident in non-violent ways.”

Some three weeks ago, on June 17, a very similar incident took place in Bili’in. A few hundred Palestinians and Israelis began a march toward the route of the separation fence, which passes through village property and leaves some 2,000 dunams (around half the village’s land) outside the fence. The Bili’in residents, who claim to be inspired by Gandhi’s methods, declared the march a non-violent demonstration. The marchers were stopped by soldiers and Border Police a few hundred meters from the route of the fence.

The demonstration ended with the security forces deploying riot-dispersal means and in the arrest of a number of protesters, including Abdallah Abu-Rahma, one of the leaders of Bili’in’s Popular Committee, and his brother, Ratab, a lecturer at the Al-Quds University and a member of the Seeds of Peace organization.

The indictment against Ratab Abu-Rahma was based primarily on testimony from Wahil Sabit, a border policeman present during the demonstration. Sabit testified that demonstrators started throwing stones at the security forces immediately after the area was declared a closed military zone. Sabit said he saw Abu-Rahma throw stones at the soldiers and then shot him with a sponge bullet.

Sabit was the only policeman who claimed to have seen Abu-Rahma throwing stones.

Abu-Rahma’s attorneys, Tamar Peleg and Gabi Lasky, presented the court with video clips that were filmed during the incident and that show Abu-Rahma asking the demonstrators to walk “slowly, slowly.” Two of the clips show the demonstrators moving the barbed wire barrier set up by the security forces, but not crossing it, only lying down on the road in quiet protest. Immediately thereafter, the soldiers are seen throwing stun grenades and tear-gas canisters toward the demonstrators, without the latter having thrown a single stone.

Abu-Rahma is seen getting to his feet and then immediately being hit with a sponge bullet. Contrary to border policeman Sabit’s testimony, Abu-Rahma is not arrested there and then, but only some time later, after the security forces apprehend his brother and begin beating him. Ratab Abu-Rahma is seen intervening in an effort to help his sibling, and also takes blows from the soldiers.

Judge Zamir upheld all the arguments of the defense, ruling that the demonstration was quiet, that no stone-throwing was seen on the videotapes, and that Abu-Rahma took a blow to his stomach without any provocation on his part. “There was no reason for the defendant’s arrest; there was no reason for the shooting that wounded him or the blows he received from the soldier,” concluded the judge, adding that the reality was “strangely different, to put it mildly, from the testimony of the prosecution witnesses.”

Zamir ordered Abu-Rahma released on bail and advised the prosecution to reconsider its actions against him. The prosecution, however, did not capitulate, and appealed the judge’s decision in a hearing on Thursday. The appeal was rejected.

It emerged during the appeal, however, that a border policeman also filmed the events. This tape has yet to be seen by the prosecution. Until such time, Abu-Rahma remains free.

Qawawis

written by V.

The psychological and physical harassment in the village of Qawawis continues.

The sheperds living in the hamlet of Qawawis, South of Hebron live in constant fear of the settlers living in the nearby illegal settlement outpost. All settlements are illegal under International law but the settlement outpost near Qawawis is illegal even by Israeli standards, a fact that doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Israeli authorities. The illegal outpost is hooked up to electricity, water and a road that is paved to it’s entrance, while the native Palestinians have no access to any of these services. The illegal outpost structures and residents are protected by the Israeli military and police, while the native Palestinians are forced to live in caves. If the natives of Qawawis build any structure, It is immediately threatened with demolition and will be torn down.

I stayed In Qawawis for three days. On the first day a group of settlers appeared on a hill that is part of the village. The Palestinian family living on this hill have recently returned there after they escaped from settler violence to a nearby town, two years ago. Shortly after the appearance of the settlers, who each carried a machine-gun, an army jeep arrived and waited for the settlers to leave for 40 minutes. On the third day a settler car stopped on the settlement road and two settlers came out and walk towards a Shepard and his flock hurling verbal abuse for about 10 minutes before continuing on their way.

These two incidents ended without violence but this is not always the case. The community lives under constant threat. The families of Qawawis are defenseless. They urgently ask for your help.