British
Woman Watches In Shock
As Israeli Bulldozers Raze Her Home West Of Occupied Jerusalem
By Jennie Matthew
05 August , 2007
Agence France Presse
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Six months pregnant and exhausted,
British mother Jessica Barhoum is still shocked that Israeli authorities
ordered her, her husband and their baby out of bed at daybreak and pulverized
their home. "I can't believe that it's lawful, that this law exists.
I'm from England. Do you know what I mean?" asked Jessica, 32,
who grew up in the southern city of Salisbury but moved to Israel after
marrying Moussa, her Arab Israeli husband. "You can't believe a
country like this would make a law against its own citizens," she
added.
For the last four decades,
Israeli legislation has permitted the demolition of homes built without
a construction permit, the case for the Barhoums' home in the village
of Ein Rafa, west of Occupied Jerusalem, although a permit was pending.
Critics say the law is disproportionately
used against Arab Israelis rather than Jewish Israelis. Permits can
take years to acquire, particularly for Palestinians wanting to build
in Israeli-occupied and annexed East Jerusalem.
Jessica, a landscape gardener
who also holds Swiss nationality, converted to Islam before marrying
and moving to her husband's village, giving birth to their daughter
Sara and learning to speak nearly fluent Arabic and Hebrew.
Last week she watched in
disbelief as two bulldozers with pneumatic drills implemented an 18-month-old
demolition order against their home, which Moussa spent eight years
building on land owned by his family.
Armed Israeli security forces
woke them up at 5:00 a.m. Jessica said she was given five minutes to
get out. Her daughter screamed and her husband was arrested as clearers
stuffed some of their possessions into plastic bags before the bulldozers
pulverized the two-bedroom house and vegetable patch into rubble.
"It did feel like a
war zone," she said, pale under her pastel-colored headscarf. The
adjoining apartment where her newly married sister-in-law lived was
also smashed.
Her sister-in-law, a hairdresser
to the Israeli elite at the luxury King David Hotel in nearby Jerusalem,
went into hysterics and then to hospital.
The demolition law has been
in force since 1968, allowing "illegal" houses to be razed
even if permits are pending in the bureaucratic pipeline.
In 2005, Moussa was given
legal notice he had 18 months to finalize the permit or have his house
bulldozed. When the deadline ran out, the permit was still not ready.
Jessica said a woman at the
local council led them to believe everything would be alright. They
did not consult a lawyer. They now feel they were naive.
The pile of rubble took two
days to clear. The Barhoums lost their bed and a handmade cupboard.
Sara's cot was broken, her soft toys and tiny shoes were found littered
among the ruins.
Hundreds of Arabs in Israel
and the Occupied Territories each year face the same trauma of watching
bulldozers tearing their homes to dust.
Meir Margalit, field coordinator
for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), said the
Interior Ministry alone demolished 850 structures in Israel last year,
most of them in the Arab sector.
And since 1967, 18,000 Palestinian
homes have been demolished in the territories, including East Jerusalem,
according to ICAHD figures.
Margalit said Jewish Israeli
homes are never demolished on the permit pretext under the 1968 law.
Although the Interior Ministry was asked to comment, a spokesman did
not return AFP's call.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories
are classified as illegal because Israel is an "occupier."
But such demolitions within Israel are legal. The minority Arab Israelis
are not occupied by any outside power; they pay taxes and are citizens
of the Jewish state, despite their complaints of discrimination.
"My husband's cousin's
just been in a state of shock because he's like, 'we pay our taxes,
we abide by the law, we're Israeli citizens,' Jessica said.
"We all want to live
together, but the people who are making the laws don't. They know that
they weren't just knocking our house down, they know that they were
breeding hatred and anger within our community," she added charged.
When the bulldozers arrived,
two Jewish Israeli friends drove down to the village to stand in support
of Jessica. Another quietly paid 1,000 pounds [$2,029] into her bank
account. ICAHD promised to help the family
find temporary accommodation
and rebuild the house. Villagers have raised cash donations and building
merchants have offered free materials.
The Barhoums are determined
to begin rebuilding as soon as possible and enlist legal help to halt
any further demolition orders while they finalize arrangements for the
construction permit.
"I'm having a baby in
November. We need something that's winter proof and summer proof because
we're not quite sure how long it's going to take us to get our house
back to a livable state," Jessica said.
Theirs is the only home in
the village to be razed so far, but the case has fueled concern from
lawyers and human-rights activists that further properties could be
destroyed since most lack finalized permits.
Margalit fears the authorities
have their eye on confiscating land in Ein Rafa.
Commercial lawyer Sami Rashid
is also worried. "It's a bit strange that they just picked this
house because there are many houses without a permit. It may be that
the Interior Ministry may want to demolish houses in Ein Rafa."
The village representative on the regional council told AFP that 200
homes in Ein Rafa and a neighboring village could be liable for demolition,
saying the demolition of the Barhoums' home had "destroyed"
efforts to build bridges between local Arab and Jewish youth.
Lawyer Rashid is among those
urging change. "I do believe that the law has to be amended,"
he said. "There must be much more restrictions and restraints in
bringing a demolition order into force.
It has been Jessica's worst
experience in Israel. But as a practicing Muslim, she says she has endured
arduous times at checkpoints, security checks weighed down with shopping
and lengthy scrutiny at the airport.
"It's a different experience
once you've got a headscarf in this country, but I guess it's something
you have to live with if you want to live here.
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