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America is a country familiar with and accepting of transient lifestyles. It isn’t at all uncommon for our children to grow up and ‘move away.’ Many of us have moved so often in our careers that it’s almost expected that our kids will do the same. For a Palestinian family, however, this is rarely the case. Not only do the children remain at home, often after marriage they build their house on top of their parent’s home.
When Gwynne and I stayed with a Palestinian family last month, they proudly showed us the ‘factory’ on the first floor – the place where they produced the carvings that support their living – as well as their home on the second floor and then the home of one of their children on the third. When you’re ‘land-locked’ you build up, not beside or across town.
And this is why the home demolition program carried out by the Israelis is so devastating. It is not just the loss of property that Palestinians experience, but the loss of identity.
In a document from Amnesty International we are told that “The largest single wave of destruction carried out by the Israeli army was in Jenin refugee camp in April 2002” when more than 800 families – equaling over 4,000 people – were driven from their homes.
The practice of ‘communal’ punishment, something prohibited by international law, is when a person involved in civil disobedience not only is punished by the destruction of their home, but also the homes of those related to this individual are destroyed as well. Imagine having your home destroyed merely because one of your children (or even a distant relative) was ‘accused’ of having committed a crime – not convicted, mind you, just accused. Not only that, but in addition to your home, several homes of other family members were destroyed. Do you think that would compel you to action, to retribution, to an act of terrorism?
Imagine a bulldozer arriving at your home, unannounced, and begins leveling it. The time it takes to bring a home to rubble can be as few as five minutes. For an apartment complex of five homes, it takes only a few hours to bring it to the ground.
Here’s an interesting statistic: 50% of all suicide bombers are victims of having had their home destroyed! This should speak to us of the psychological damage such demolition programs produce.
As well, the net result of such demolitions is that more and more the Palestinians are ‘herded’ onto smaller islands of communal living if not driven out of the country altogether. It is clear that by taking the land, Israel not only displaces the people on it but also forever ends their right to self-determination.
Once a home is destroyed, a permit to rebuild must be applied for. The cost for such a permit is prohibitive, let alone the fact that denial is assured. In an instant and without proof of any wrongdoing, an Israeli bulldozer can arrive at your home and in minutes you can witness your entire world crumbling down.
The net result is that Israel gains effective control over the country by confining the 3.6 million Palestinians of the Occupied Territories to small enclaves comprising just 8% of the country; enclaves that are often encircled by a massive concrete wall. We’ll speak more about this on Wednesday.
Today we finish with this call to action: In the name of peace, we ask all Jewish citizens to petition the Israeli government to cease their systematic home demolition program. And we ask all American citizens reading this blog to petition their U.S. congressmen and Senators to address the illegal and immoral problem so that peace might be one step closer to arriving for all the citizens of Palestine/Israel.
10 comments to “Israel Report Pt. 4: Tumbling Down”
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To deny and or destroy shelter from another human being is indeed devastating and abusive. Loss of a home under the best of circumstances is bad enough, but when it’s deliberate and rampant, it’s cruel and unthinkable as well. Thanks for the info.
Alciia
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Can’t help but wondering if both the conservative and liberal news media don’t have a mutual agenda.
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i’m so glad that you’re telling these stories, Tim. way to go!
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Regardless of media agenda, I’m glad to see this published on Tim’s blog. Thanks again, so much!
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I was surely ignorant of the issues!. We have seen none of this published anywhere! Thanks Tim for being a voice for truth. Surprising to me that even in this age of mass information, this sort of thing can still be supressed in our media!
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Dear God – this is cruel and insane….! Wishing for a “compassion injection” that would vaccinate against the ego-epidemic…!
(& yet … it’s happenING! Can you feel it? Can you taste it? Can you see it?)
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My husband has a cousin living in Bethanina, a town adjacent to Jerusalem, who built a five story apartment building housing him and eight other families. He obtained a permit to build but during construction, it extended several feet onto the neighbor’s property. Israel told him he would have to destroy the building even though the neighbor said he would sell the property to his cousin. He did try taking it to court but was unsuccessful. One day the government showed up and gave the families one hour to vacate the premises. Most of the personal belongings with their furniture was destroyed in the implosion of the building. None of these people had participated in terroistic activities. The neighbor was willing to sell him the land involved and yet all lost their home. A 55 year old man living there died one week after seeing his home destroyed.
We may call Israel a democratic country but where is the justice for these families. Remember how the early American settlers rioted against England for “Taxations without Representation.” What would we do today if our government came and destroyed our homes and we had no one in congress to represent us?
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Keep preaching brother.
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Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, and what you’ve seen. This points us in an extremely important direction – becoming aware of the systemic cruelty that is going on around the world, so that we can change.
Systems of violence thrive on ignorance. Awareness brings compassion.
I will use your post on my blog that this information may hopefully be spread further. Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. Many of us know some (as a teacher of world history), but not know all the facts about this tenuous area of our world.