Stop
Demolishing Palestinian Homes
By
César Chelala
09 May, 2003
The election of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister gives the
Bush administration an opportunity to move quickly on the Israeli-Palestinian
problem. U.S. and Israeli officials have been discussing a series of
measures that could lead to an improvement in the present situation.
One way to reduce rapidly the hostility between the two peoples, help
Abbas gain credibility among Palestinians and provide the basis for
serious discussions with the Israeli leadership would be for the Israeli
Army to stop demolishing Palestinians' homes.
Since the start of Israel's
occupation of Palestinian lands in 1967, more than 10,000 Palestinian
civilian homes have been demolished, only 600 of which were the homes
of people accused of security offenses. Unjustified demolition of houses
- which has increased in intensity since the last intifada - have had
a serious negative impact on Palestinians' health and quality of life,
and will, in the end, be counterproductive for Israel itself.
Arik Ascherman, executive
director of the organization Rabbis for Human Rights, has stated, "Israel
committed human rights violations in the occupied territories, destroying
homes and cropland, expropriating land and treating ordinary Palestinians
like criminals. With every violation, more Palestinians lost faith in
the peace process until frustration spilled over into uprising. American
Jews and Israelis don't realize what is going on because they have not
seen what we have seen."
On Jan. 3 the State Department's
spokesman, Richard Boucher, repeated the Bush administration's position
that although the United States recognizes Israel's "need to take
legitimate anti-terrorist action," "steps such as the displacement
of people through the demolition of homes and property exacerbate the
humanitarian situation and undermine trust and confidence." In
spite of that statement, demolitions have continued unabated.
Israeli soldiers are now
demolishing whole towns and subdivisions. This is the case of Nazlat
Issa in the West Bank and Rafah in Gaza. Demolitions are also carried
out in Israel itself, such as a housing development in the Palestinian
town of Kafr Kassem. The only accusation against the homeowners is that
they lacked a building permit, which in any case is unattainable.
In many cases, several homes
have been rebuilt with the help of Israelis appalled at the behavior
of their own government - only to be destroyed again, sometimes three
or four times.
As if Palestinians' lives
were not difficult enough, since 1967 more than 500,000 olive trees
- the main source of income for thousands of families - have been uprooted
by the Israeli Army, and 80 percent of the West Bank's water goes into
Israel and the settlements. Palestinians cannot drill for water without
Israeli permission and are not even allowed to build reservoirs to collect
rain water. This systematic intimidation has driven 150,000 to 250,000
Palestinians from their homes during the last two years of the intifada.
A small but extremely active
organization, the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, has for
the last few years been trying to counteract these brutal occupation
policies. Members of this group have been actively rebuilding Palestinians'
homes in a remarkable act of solidarity.
Jeff Halper, the group's
coordinator, has stated, "By doing so we, as Israeli Jews, are
saying to the Palestinians: We acknowledge your existence as a people
and your right to be in this country. We want to share this country
with you, based on the right of both our peoples. We seek a common future
based on a just peace. We refuse to be enemies."
It is only through this kind
of approach that negotiations with the Palestinians will prove fruitful
and a lasting peace will eventually be achieved in the Middle East.
The writer is an international
public health consultant.