Destroying
Your Home With
Love And Wisdom
By Chris McGreal
at Jabaliya refugee camp
18 October, 2004
The
Guardian
The
Israeli general who commanded the destruction of the only Jewish settlement
in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt recently offered Ariel
Sharon advice on how to carry out his pledge to remove settlers from
the Gaza strip.
"Evicting someone
from the home they've lived in for 20 years isn't a simple matter,"
wrote Brigadier General Obed Tira. "To remove a family from its
home is embarrassing and difficult, and that is why the removal needs
to be done with a lot of love and a lot of wisdom."
The soldiers who
arrived outside the home of Ghalia Abu Radwan, her octogenarian parents,
blind siblings and assortment of children in Khan Yunis in the middle
of the night showed no love, and, if they were embarrassed, there was
no way to know it because they were hidden behind the armour of their
bulldozers and tanks.
As the loudspeakers
on the tanks ordered the families out, and bursts of gunfire sharpened
the terror, Mrs Abu Radwan shepherded her blind brother and sister to
safety.
"I grabbed
them by the hand and shouted to my mother to follow us," said Mrs
Abu Radwan. "Think of it - 25 children, two blind adults and my
parents who cannot run. My sister-in-law left her three year-old behind
in the chaos and had to go back to get him. When we came back they had
destroyed all the houses."
Mrs Abu Radwan's
mother, Ommuhammed, said she thought she would also die.
"I kept imagining
a piece of shrapnel hitting my head. I was so exhausted I had to crawl
in the sand sometimes or put my hand on Ghalia's shoulder and let her
pull me," she said.
"Since 1948, the Israelis have demolished three of my homes. This
is the most difficult because before others helped us rebuild but now
everyone needs help and I don't know who will help us."
While Mr Sharon
agonises over how to draw 7,500 Jewish settlers out of Israel's Gaza
colonies - offering hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation
to each family - the army has already bulldozed close to 9,000 Palestinians
from their homes in the Gaza strip this year alone.
Most got no more
than a few minutes notice to get out and lost all but the possessions
they could hurriedly bundle together.
The latest target
was Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza city. From dawn on Saturday the
people came, trying to find their bearings amid the rubble and then
scrambling across the sand where once there was an asphalt road.
A man ripped at
the remains of his shattered home in search of anything that could be
saved, burrowing out a picture, some clothes, a schoolbook. Another
collapsed on to the wreckage, stunned and silent.
The tide began as
soon as it was clear that Israeli tanks had pulled out of Jabaliya after
17 days of destruction and killing. The bulldozers left behind dozens
of flattened homes and hundreds homeless.
The remains of the
mosque were marked by its twisted steel minaret and loudspeakers. A
sewage line torn from the ground spewed filth as people attempted to
jump it. The only clue to the existence of a small orange grove was
a few of the scattered fruits.
The scale of the
destruction - about 20 acres of homes, shops and roads razed or ground
into the sand - matched the Israelis' controversial assault on Jenin
refugee camp two years ago. But the death toll in Jabaliya was double
that with about 130 people killed, one in six of them children 15 or
younger.
Within hours of
pulling out of Jabaliya, the army's bulldozers were at work again in
another Gaza refugee camp, Rafah.
"One would
have thought that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip would decrease
house demolitions," said Kenneth Ross, director of Human Rights
Watch, after visiting Jabaliya.
"In fact, house
demolitions have risen dramatically. This seems to reflect on the one
hand a political show of force and Sharon's desire not to be seen to
withdraw under fire, but also part of his vision to create a buffer
zone along the Egyptian border. It is also part of a wider pattern of
punishing civilians."
A United Nations
human rights report on the Israeli occupation to be presented to the
general assembly this month accuses Israel of "massive and wanton
destruction of property" in the Gaza strip.
"Bulldozers
have destroyed homes in a purposeless manner and have savagely dug up
roads, including electricity, sewage and water lines," it says.
Most of the destruction
is focused on Rafah, along Gaza's border with Egypt, and neighbouring
Khan Yunis refugee camp.
But in recent weeks
there has also been widespread destruction of homes as the army widened
the "security zone" around Netzarim Jewish settlement, and
in the Palestinian towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lehia.
The pummelling of
Rafah in May left about 4,000 people homeless. Four years ago, buildings
in the refugee camp ran right up to the military area on the border,
known as the Philadelphi road. Half of Rafah's Block O neighbourhood
has since been destroyed.
Even after Israel
pulls its settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza strip, it will remain
the occupying power under international law, and it intends to strengthen
its grip on the territory's borders. The disengagement plan speaks of
"widening the area" along the Philadelphi road.
"So far about
10% of Rafah is destroyed and if Israeli plans are carried through,
approximately a third of Rafah will be destroyed," said Mr Ross.
With the destruction
comes death. In July, a 75 year-old man in a wheelchair, Ibrahim Halfalla,
was crushed to death under the rubble of his Khan Yunis home by an army
bulldozer because he did not get out in time.
As Mrs Abu Radwan
and her family fled, the army shot dead a 60-year-old neighbour, Ahmad
Abu-Nimer, as he fled. Two other men were wounded by gunfire.
Israel says the
demolitions meet the international legal requirement of military necessity
because homes are destroyed in the hunt for weapons smuggling tunnels
or because they are used by Palestinian combatants to attack Israeli
forces.
The UN and Human
Rights Watch say that is merely an excuse. They say it would be more
efficient, and safer for Israeli troops, to detect and close off the
tunnels behind the protective wall the military has built along the
border by using listening devices and ground penetrating radar.
They add that the
number of tunnels found is relatively small in comparison to the number
of buildings destroyed.
The army claims
to have uncovered 90, but that number includes several entrances to
the same tunnel and the beginnings of wells.