[Peace-discuss] Stop Home Demolitions

[David Green]

Honor Rachel, End House Demolitions
Jeff Halper, ICAHD, Mar 18, 2003

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,
together with the entire Israeli peace and human
rights movement, mourns the death in Gaza of Rachel
Corrie and extends its condolences to her family,
friends and comrades in the International Solidarity
Movement.

Rachel was not the first person killed as a result of
Israel's cruel policy of house demolitions. Less than
two weeks ago Nuha Makadma Sweidan and her unborn
child were also killed in Gaza when Israeli army
sappers "accidentally" demolished their home when they
blew up another home nearby. A few weeks before that
an elderly woman and a disabled man died under the
rubble of their Gazan homes when the soldiers "failed
to notice" them. These were no mere accidents. Israel
routinely demolishes Palestinian houses on top of all
the families' possessions, and in their haste do not
bother to follow prosaic rules of "safety."

The vast majority of demolitions, it must be
understood, have nothing to do with terrorism.
According to UN figures, less than 600 of the 10,000
houses demolished since the Occupation began in 1967
involved security suspects. All the rest  94% -- were
simply houses of ordinary people that were in Israel's
way. That was the case of the home of Dr. Samir
Nasrallah, which Rachel died protecting. Dr. Nasrallah
had engaged in no hostile activities, had not been
charged with anything. His house was demolished
because, like dozens of others that have been
bulldozed in that section of the dense refugee camp,
it laid within a wide "security strip" that Israel
wants to create along the border with Egypt. No
compensation was given to Dr. Nasrallah, no
opportunity to appeal to the court, no alternative
housing offered. Simply demolition that leaves
families homeless, impoverished, traumatized, ruined.
An illegal policy, since international law forbids the
demolition of houses by an Occupying Power.

So why does Israel pursue such a heartless policy that
seems tailor-made to generating hatred against it?
First, the policy of home demolition confines
Palestinians to tiny overcrowded and non-viable
islands of land, allowing Israel to control the entire
West Bank and Gaza through its expansive system of
settlements. Second, Israel knows that homes are
sacred to Palestinians, the core of their extended
family life. By demolishing Israel hopes to break the
Palestinians' will to resist the Occupation and accept
life in a truncated bantustan. And third, house
demolitions are a key mechanism to the process of
displacement, of Israel's exclusive claim to the
entire  country.

Beyond the politics of the Occupation, it is this last
reason that motivates us, members of the Israeli peace
camp, to resist demolition as Rachel did, to block the
bulldozers with our bodies, and to rebuild Palestinian
homes when they are demolished. For 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 rights of both our peoples. We
seek a common future based on a just peace. We refuse
to be enemies.

Rachel was not an Israeli. She was, as a member of the
International Solidarity Movement, a member of the
international civil society, as we all are. In her
actions she affirmed her responsibility for upholding
the inherent dignity and equal rights of all people,
including their right to a nationality. She opposed
non-violently the violence that occupation does the
Palestinians.

The threshold of what is outrageous has reached
unimaginable heights in the Occupied Territories.
Little moves us anymore. The demolition of 60
Palestinian homes in the Rafah section of Gaza where
Rachel worked made barely a ripple when it happened a
year ago. 2400 Palestinians have died in the past two
years, a quarter of them children and youth, and
22,000 have been injured. Thirty percent of
Palestinian children under the age of 5 suffer from
malnutrition. 500,000 olive and fruit trees have been
uprooted or cut down. Israel is today imprisoning the
Palestinians behind a 500 mile wall that is much
longer, higher and more fortified than was the Berlin
Wall. Its all mind-boggling, its all happening before
our eyes and -- who cares?

Rachel cared.

Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). 


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