House Demolitions in the West Bank

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday October 10, 2003 21:35 by Aron Baker baker_aron at hotmail dot com Balata refugee camp, Nablus, West Bank 087 2895036

House sitting in the West Bank to try and prevent and monitor house demolitions

1/10/2003
Abu Laid's wife sits, crying quietly, the catalyst Anne-Marie's departure, why would she cry when her guest has only been there a few days, was a stranger before arrival, and dosen't skeak the same languages, maybe it signifies the departure of her life as she has known it. The house we stand outside is huge and of course as is the Palestinian way unfinished, the family using about 1/6 of it, the rest awaits the marrying of their children, usually the sons who will then take a section of the house for their own family. However in this instance the house will probably never get finished as Israel in its wisdom has issued a 48 hours demolition notice, which has now expired, there is a second home 150 metres up under a similar fate. Any moment now the army could show up to demolish the house and close the gap in the razor wire which exists here, sealing the fate of another family, this family of 12.

We have come to help the family as they have requested an international
presence, both to help resist giving up the house and to monitor the army in its destruction. I think Abu is worried that his 4 big sons may be the object of army brutality when they come to demolish and an international presence may help to deter that.

Just getting to the neighbouring village is a challenge. We leave Nablus, exiting the Huwwarra checkpoint, were we are told it will be a problem for us to re-enter. Traveling to Tulkarem approx 15 miles away maybe, the nearest city we are stopped 3 times before reaching the last checkpoint, Jbarra. The first stop is when an unmarked car zooms in front of us and pulls us over, 2 crazy looking soldiers jump out and for a minute or two I think maybe they are even crazier settlers, but after checking the taxis permit, (we are on a main road, not allowed under the occupation for most Palestinian cars without a special permit), and all our IDs we are allowed to continue. The 2nd stop is by 2 soldiers skulking around under a bridge leading into the village of Madama, they again check IDs and leave us through. The next stop is the village of Funduq, theres 2 police jeeps and
an army humvee. After waiting for awhile we decide to walk as we have to
change taxis in Funduq anyway, (under the occupation taxis are only allowed to operate in their own locales, meaning frequent changes). It takes us only a moment to pass this temporary checkpoint and about 20 minutes to walk into the village, during this time numerous Israeli cars whiz by, not stopping at the checkpoint and a total of 1 Palestinian car is finally allowed through, the rest sit queueing quietly in the sun, 15 or 20 vehicles including a bus full of people. Eventually we reach the final checkpoint at Jbarra and are allowed through, the soldiers only looking to get a bracelet off my fellow ISMer. We soon get taken to eat lunch at the mayors house, Abu Mazen, who is also a school principle, he tells us that the previous day he had 150 olive trees burnt by the army or settlers, (sometimes its hard to tell them apart), its in addition to the 120 or 150 he had already lost to the construction of the fence. The apartheid wall snakes around the lands here in lazy bends and twists, seemingly without planning. This means that to get to the house we wish to go to we must go past the house, about 100 meters away, go several miles to the Jbarra checkpoint and then come several miles back again on the other side of the fence. There is a gate in the apartheid fence closer to the house but its only opened twice a day at best, once in the morning almost exclusively for the children and teachers to go to school and once later to allow them to return. Last Saturday the army didn't allow anyone to go through including the children, on Monday farmers with land on the other side of the fence, (Hence on the Palestinian side) came to pass but where refused, meaning they couldn't harvest their olives as planned.

Abu Laid and his family own 13 dunums of land (about 4 acres) and their home, with 11/2 on the other side of the fence. Abu is a former resident of Tulkarem refugee camp where he lived after losing their previous home to the Israeli occupation of historical Palestine.

The apartheid wall or fence is right up against the house, here the construction consists of, 6 coils of razor wire, stacked in a pyramid shape, then a fresh tarmac road with a bright dashed line down the middle, then a gap, then the fence itself, its about 10 to 12 feet high, or about 3 metres. Its a heavy gauge chain link or mesh fence with sensors on it which when activated are supposed to indicate if anyone is tampering with it. Numerous signs worn of mortal danger if one interferes or touches it. Then there's a dirt road on the other side of this, followed by a trench, several metres wide and deep, this is then followed by another heap of razor wire. In total its about 30 metres wide here, though in other areas its much wider and features different construction, and a lot more land confiscation to facilitate it.

There are 12 people who live in the house and they have 2 contingency plans for when the IOF and bulldozers show up.

1) They won't leave the house (considering the IOF will be armed with M16s and grenade launchers as a minimum and maybe an APC or worse I'm not confident of the effectiveness of this 1st plan).

2) They have a small shed, about 10ft by 10ft with cladding on the roof , bamboo walls and a diesel generator.

It takes awhile to dawn on us, that despite the fact that we can see 2 Palestinian villages in the distance to the West that we are now in an area that has been effectively annexed to Israel, despite us being several miles inside the green line, we must be at least a mile or 2 east of Tulkarem, a large Palestinian city. The 2 villages we can see are being completely strangled, the people cannot go to Israel, they cannot go to the rest of the West Bank with out going to the Jbarra checkpoint, I don't think vehicles are usually allowed through here, and if you cross by foot who knows if you will be allowed to return? This means that they cannot sell their produce and supplies to live on are hauled across the
checkpoints by hand.
All day and during the night there is the continual buzz of spydrones and sudden roar of F16's.
At night we sleep in part of the unfinished house upstairs, lacking all finishes including windows. Abu and a son start hauling blocks to fill in 1 window and we object, liking the breeze, but they explain its to stop the soldiers seeing or shooting in, so we stop objecting.
Military vehicles cruise by periodically, sometimes bibbing their horn like they were friendly neighbours. In the morning Abu and his sons cast a concrete cap on the retainer wall of the patio. False hopes?
Bear in mind an estimated 10,000 demolition orders have been issued but to date only 2,000 - 3,000 have been executed, plus those who recieve no demolition notice or order. I think this house they would demolish, due to its proximity with the wall, but with the focus of attention here maybe they'll leave it for awhile. During the day several photographers, a french newscrew and the UN have visited the 2 houses, but all are
powerless to intervene in any way, Abu also has an interview to some TV show by phone.

The house was built mainly 5 years ago, the fence was built through here approx 12 months ago. While building the fence they used explosives to blast the rock, during blasting lumps of rock smashed down on the roof of the house, smashing through a reinforced concrete floor in several locations.

10/10/2003
As far as I know the house has not yet been demolished.
The theft of land and demolition of houses continue daily across the West Bank and the Gaza strip.