ZIONISTS DEMOLISH HUMAN RIGHTS
by Eileen Fleming
Dissident Voice, CA
molish-human-rights/
July 18 2007
We all need a psychiatrist, but we cannot afford one, so we do
activism.
– Ashraf Abu Moch, Israeli Palestinian, ICAHD Volunteer
ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) is a non-violent
do something group opposed to the occupation of Palestine which
resists the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Occupied
Territories. This summer ICAHD has committed to rebuild 300 of
the so far 18,000 homes the Israeli government has destroyed which
has resulted in creating 18,000 homeless families who legally own
their land.
According to international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids
home demolitions in occupied territories and demands that the occupiers
maintain the status quo and not pilfer the resources of the indigenous
population.
Indigenous Palestinians are denied building permits in the Orwellian
democracy of Israel while USA fundamentalist Christian churches
financially support and pray for the illegal settlements/colonies
which have been erected on legally owned Palestinian land.
In contrast to the misdeeds of empire, twenty five internationals,
dozens of Israelis and scores of Palestinians have created a community
upon the rocky barren land of the Hamdan family of nine with intent
to hand the keys of the house over to Hassan Yussef Hamdan and his
family fourteen days from now.
The land has legally been owned by the Hamdan clan with the deeds
filled-out in Hassan Yussef’s great-grandfather’s name, during the
Ottoman Empire. The oldest son, Mohammed’s grandmother, Um Mohammad
addressed the media in Arabic which was translated to English by Nadia
another ICAHD volunteer, while the foundation of the house was being
laid: "We own twenty-five pieces of land, twenty-five meters is one
piece. After building our home here, we received papers demanding we
demolish our own home. We got a lawyer in Tel Aviv, and after paying
$10, 000.00 she did nothing. The soldiers came under our window and we
hired another lawyer and had to pay 70,000 shekels within two hours to
hold off the soldiers. The soldiers came back two more times, after
more negotiations the soldiers came back a third time and destroyed
our home."
ICAHD spokesmen, Meir Margalit admitted, "We are here because we are
embarrassed and ashamed of our government. A decent person cannot
handle what this government puts innocent people through. We are doing
this for both sides: for the innocent families and to keep the moral
values of Judaism alive."
American-Israeli Aviva Joseph wrapped it up when she informed the
crowd, "We are here building on the 9th day of Av, the day the Jewish
Temple was destroyed… I was born in Chile into an Orthodox Zionist
home. Both my parents are Holocaust survivors. When I was ten I use to
go to Bethlehem, but after the first intifada, things began closing
down; physical walls and psychological walls. I lived in Gilo, some
call it a settlement, some a neighborhood and I lived in a small box
with my own myth. Now I live in California and things you see from
there you can’t see here and other things you must come here to see
what cannot be seen anywhere else. I love Israel, but until I began
listening to the voices of the marginalized did I see I was living
my own myth. The work is not just in the head but in the heart –
opening both sides to a new paradigm with compassion. It must be like
hydrogen and oxygen the sides coming together; who could have thought
that would make water?"
Jeff Halper, American-Israeli, founder and coordinator of ICAHD
and a twenty-first century prophet, was unable to be at the site
due to a family emergency, but on March 17, 2006, the 7th day of my
third journey to Israel Palestine, Jeff greeted my group of nearly
one hundred Internationals attending a Sabeel/Arabic for THE WAY,
reality tour through the West Bank, in the East Jerusalem YMCA
conference room with, "I don’t want to depress you too much but the
issue of the occupation is a global issue that transcends boundaries
and Israel-Palestine impacts all global realities… We have a country
created by the UN and supported by the USA that has a brutal occupation
while International Law defines occupation as a temporary situation.
"When you incorporate occupied territories, highways, settlements
and use resources it is all illegal according to the Fourth Geneva
Convention which states the status quo must be retained so that
negotiations can happen. Unilateral actions are illegal. The occupying
power is responsible for those under its control.
"Tony Blair said 70% of all the conflicts in the world can be traced
back to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. What gives us hope is that
as this conflict worsens maybe Europe will figure out that American
policies are against their interests and intervene… This conflict
impacts the global community and especially everyone in the USA.
"If we do fix this conflict it would be a tremendous step forward in
global reconciliation… This whole issue is based on Human Rights
and it is a global issue requiring global intervention. …Israel
is not a democracy, it is an ethnocracy: full rights to Jews, but
not Palestinians."
After our group said goodbye to Jeff and hi to Angela, another
dedicated ICAHD volunteer, and I went for a reality tour of east
Jerusalem. We witnessed the remains of many demolished homes and
saw the tents where the home owners now lived. Angela informed us,
"There are forty-two illegal settlements in the Muslim, Christian
and Armenian quarters of Jerusalem. The only green area for children
to play will soon have a high rise for the settlers which will be 7
meters taller than the walls of the Old City… Out of site of most
Israelis is the Hebronization of east Jerusalem. The Wall has been
deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice but America
continues to allow it to grow. The wall is way over the Green Line
proving it is not about security but about grabbing Palestinian land.
Israel’s policy of Quiet Transfer: getting rid of the Palestinians
is a huge humanitarian crisis.
"There is an advertisement that runs in the USA that reads: ‘Have
a Holiday Home in Jerusalem.’ The ad does not mention this home is
100% ILLEGAL! It is clear how the wall zig zags that it is not about
security but about grabbing the maximum land with minimal Palestinian
occupation."
When I returned to Israel Palestine in October 2006, over sixty
internationals gathered in Jerusalem for another ICAHD tour. Jeff
informed us, "It has been said that the Israelis do not love this
land, they just want to possess it. There have been three stages to
make this occupation permanent. The first was to establish the facts
on the ground: the settlements. There are a half-million Israelis and
four-million Palestinians here. They have been forced into Bantustans,
truncated mini states, prison states. It is apartheid and Bush and
Hillary are both willing collaborators.
"In 1977, Sharon came in with a mandate, money and resources to
make the Israeli presence in the West Bank irreversible. The
second stage began in April 2004 when America approved the
Apartheid/Convergence/Realignment Plan and eight settlement blocs.
This is just like South Africa! The Bush Sharon letter exchange
guaranteed that the USA considers the settlements non-negotiable. The
Convergence Plan and The Wall create the borders and that is what
defines Bantustans. Congress ratified the Bush plan and only Senator
Byrd of West Virginia voted no and nine House Representatives.
"Israel has set up a matrix of control, a thick web of settlements
guaranteed to make the occupation permanent by establishing facts on
the ground. Israel denies there is an occupation, so everything is
reduced to terrorism. It is our job to insist upon the human rights
issue, for occupied people have International Law on their side."
I asked Jeff if the settlements were in actuality colonies, meaning
foreigners had invaded and set up residence in another’s territory.
He agreed and added that, "When Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan,
the East side was 6 sq. km. Since 1967, Israel has added 64 sq. km.
The West side was 38 sq. km until ’67 and is now 108 sq. kms. Israel
plans to develop 17 settlements. Israeli policy is to maintain a 72%
Jewish and 28% Arab population. Palestinians cannot get building
permits to build upon their legally owned land. The Arab land has
been re-zoned as green space, and the green space will be re-zoned
for the settlements. Every single Palestinian home in Jerusalem
has a demolition order. The entire West Bank has been zoned as
agricultural land by Israel, and that will also be re-zoned again
for more settlements."
Doublespeak has also been employed in the USA to turn the illegal
colonies – for all the settlements are considered illegal, according
to International Law – into "neighborhoods".
A new highway has already begun to link all the settlements in a
ring around the Old City of Jerusalem. The Eastern Ring Road will
have bridges for Israelis but is just another wall against the
Palestinians. As we rode past acres of olive trees that had been
chopped off by the Israeli army, on our way to the house made for
peace, Jeff stated: "I don’t just have a political problem with this
Judiaization of the Old City, it is ecologically and environmentally
offensive."
I add it also is spiritually impoverished. The raping and pillaging of
what is claimed holy ground refutes and denies the biblical meaning
of dominion. The ancients understood dominion meant to nurture, love
and protect and the destruction of Palestinian homes, the stealing
and destroying of their legal property, is an abomination.
We concluded that day at the Beit Arabiya Peace House, which is at
the crossroads of Areas A, B and C and which has been demolished
and rebuilt four times and the owner has just received his fifth
demolition order.
Beit Arabiya is the name of the home of the Arabiya family with seven
children that has been demolished four times by the Israeli government
and rebuilt four times by the efforts of ICAHD and the JCHR (Jurist
Center for Human Rights), a Palestinian NGO focused on legal advocacy
for Palestinians in the Jerusalem area.
The home has become a meeting place for Israelis, Palestinian and
International peace activists and is the cornerstone and intersecting
point of Areas A, B, and C. The smallest of the three is Area A,
which is under Palestinian authority. Areas B and C are under Israeli
control. Since 1967 over 18,000 Palestinian families in the occupied
territories have been left homeless due to home demolitions.
According to Jeff Halper, the reasons for these home demolitions are
purely political: to confine the 3½ million residents of the West
Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza into small, crowded, impoverished and
disconnected enclaves.
The Beit Arabyia home/Peace Center’s closest neighbor is a soon
to be dismantled Bedouin camp. The Israeli government’s policy of
"Quiet Transfer" will mean extinction for the nomadic Bedouins for
they have been denied the inalienable right to move about to graze
their dwindling herds. On a hill in front of the Arabyia home/Peace
Center is the newly erected Sheen Bet [similar to USA FBI] prison
and interrogation center. A new portion of the Ring Road which will
connect the illegal colonies runs between the two and The Apartheid
Wall is in full frontal brutal view.
Upon the wall of the home is a mural donated by the North American
Workers Against the USA occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation
of Palestine. The mural depicts Rachel Corrie, the American who was
run over by a Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza when she stood up to defend
the home of a Physician with five children, and a pregnant Palestinian
woman of ten who was also killed in Gaza. The angelic images of the
two women float above a depiction of a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer
tipped to one side and flanked by tanks and weapons of destruction. On
both sides of the weapons of destruction are many people. A railroad
track reminds the viewer that prior to 1948, Jews and Palestinians
once worked together in peaceful solidarity to build a railroad.
The Arabyia home/Peace Center is the cornerstone of the village of
Anata and the Shufat refugee camp, in the very area where the prophet
Jeremiah in the 6th century B.C. critiqued the violent conflicts
in the Mid East, which were already old news: "I hear violence and
destruction in the city, sickness and wounds are all I see."
[Jeremiah 6:7]
The Arabyia home/Peace Center is a visible persistent witness of hope
and solidarity that stands because of the cooperation and unity of
locals, Israelis and Internationals with one mind, one heart and with
The Great Spirit on their side.
Mohammad Alatar, film producer of The Iron Wall addressed our group
after we broke bread and ate a typical Palestinian feast prepared by
the Arabiya family: "I am a Muslim Palestinian American and when my
son asked me who my hero was I took three days to think about it. I
told him my hero is Jesus, because he took a stand and he died for
it. What really needs to be done is for the churches to be like Jesus;
to challenge the Israeli occupation and address the apartheid practices
as moral issues. Even if every church divested and boycotted Israel
it would not harm Israel. After the USA and Russia, Israel is the
third largest arms exporter in the world. It is a moral issue that
the churches must address."
–Boundary_(ID_55zXrVDXn2vBHuVjikR 9Gw)–
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/zionists-de