Barbara Nimri Aziz – Global Research June 18, 2021
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah’s resistance to eviction by Israeli Jews evolved into a military confrontation so lopsided, the Israeli bombardments against Gaza so terrifying, it drew widespread condemnation (the US government excepted).
The Palestinian dead, injured and homeless are still being tabulated, while eviction processes of Sheikh Jarrah’s Arab inhabitants continue, even as we learn of similar forced displacement of Arabs in nearby Silwan.
Another Israeli scheme to dislodge Palestinians is home demolition—they number in the many thousands and continue (in Bustan, Silwan) even as I write. For a glimpse of these all-too-routine violations, I append my newly-digitized April 5, 1996 Christian Science Monitor article based on what I witnessed — I likened it to a lynching – when on assignment in the West Bank 25 years ago.
“It’s quite a spectacle, a Palestinian home being blown apart. Furniture, dishes and clothes, hastily removed, are deposited helter-skelter in the path or road.
Villagers stand by, silent and grim . Heavily armed soldiers are massed to prevent any disruption. Confused, awed children turn sullen.
Americans rarely see Israel’s demolition policy at work; but it’s a regular form of punishment. All Palestinians, from toddlers to the elderly, are familiar with it. Perhaps it’s happened to a neighbor. Perhaps they themselves were hauled out of their house in the early morning and told by a soft-spoken Israeli officer, with his troops surrounding the residence, that he has his orders. The entire town is aroused. Neighbors join in the frantic rush to save some household items; they know it’s useless to protest.
The silent frenzy of losing a home this way has no parallel. It’s not like a flood or a fire; it’s more like a lynching. There’s no one to call for help. Hundreds of soldiers surround the house and village to ensure no one interferes with the bulldozers and dynamite teams.
Legalized destruction
It’s all done legally too. That is to say, a paper, written in Hebrew, is presented to the householder spelling out the order to blow up or bulldoze his or her home, or to seal it. Often the order charges that the house lacks a building permit. Typically, a family has two hours’ notice.
In a village near Hebron in 1991, I saw the remains of a mosque that was flattened weeks before. The land had been cleared because of some building infraction, neighbors told me.
At other times, particularly during the intifadah (uprising), a family is informed that their son was caught (not convicted but simply picked up and charged) throwing a Molotov cocktail, or that he was captured in an attack on an Israeli.
In some cases, only the family orchard (their livelihood) is leveled. Again, the family is notified when the machines are already on the nearby road. Orchards have been destroyed based simply on a report that some Palestinian children were hiding from soldiers among the trees, or Jewish settlers claim that someone they were pursuing was heading in that direction.
During the first three years of the intifadah (1987-1991), when communal punishment was the norm for civil disobedience, the Palestinian Human Rights information Center recorded 1,726 demolitions or sealings of homes. On average, there are nine Palestinians living in a home; so those lost houses represent about 15,000 men, women and children, forcibly made homeless during that time. Often the dwelling is not even the family’s original home but a shelter inside a crowded refugee camp built with the help of United Nations funding.
Israel says it demolishes certain houses because they’re the homes of “suicide bombers”. The news media, which remains silent about these actions, are effectively sanctioning the policy. So conditioned is the public that whatever is done to an “Islamist terrorist” seems justified and is endorsed. Are we right to stand by silently and accept that?
Consider this: The demolitions are retaliatory actions that strike deep into the core of Palestinian identity. They are bound to have some traumatic effect on children. Such devastation may quell opposition temporarily, but the long-term effects may be very different. People may become more embittered and hostile towards Israeli authority. Blowing up the home of a family may in fact move the brothers and sisters of a dead man into closer identification with his actions.
Israel does not respond in this manner to all heinous acts. Look at the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by the Israeli law student. Look at Baruch Goldstein, the Hebron mass murderer. Their actions repelled most Israelis, yet their homes and families remained unharmed. No, these destructive acts are specifically designed for and executed against Palestinians.
Palestinians’ view
Palestinians see this type of punishment as another method Israel uses to “clear the land”, to deny their existence, to implement its “cleansing” policy. People deprived of a home may have one less link with the land. But such actions have other consequences. Children witness their homes, the places they were born, blown apart. They watch fathers and other male relatives helplessly held at gunpoint. They imbibe the horrified reaction of their mothers and grandmothers.
The house as the center
Because this form of punishment is so rare, few can imagine the impact of a house being blown up in front of its owners. We have to understand how central the house is to Palestinian life. Even today, most Palestinians are born at home. This is the place for daily prayer, for family meals, for weddings, for homecomings from jail, and for funerals. This is where everyone gathers to pass the evening. It is not a shelter; it is a community. It is the place for consolation and joy, the haven and the refuge.
Mother is the manager, so the home is unequivocally associated with her power and protective role. Harming the house is like violating the mother. Many children will feel they must avenge this injustice. Especially with the world community standing by seeming to sanction the destruction, family members may feel more responsibility to seek justice. Anyone who understands this would advise Israel to cease this practice for these reasons, if not for moral ones.”
Above: a sturdy old Jerusalem wall replaced by a parking lot … below
Author’s note: Israel’s removal of Palestinians is interminable: sometimes it’s by shrewd legal maneuvers; sometimes it’s by harassment, sometimes it’s violent takeovers, and sometimes it’s brutal demolition. A protracted process, it’s so routine that it hardly garners outside attention. Besides residences, Palestinian orchards and nature preserves are savagely destroyed by Israeli forces. A recent egregious case was reported by my colleague Raouf Halaby in Counterpunch.
This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Barbara Nimri Aziz.
BN Aziz whose anthropological research has focused on the peoples of the Himalayas is the author of the newly published “Yogmaya and Durga Devi: Rebel Women of Nepal”, available on Amazon.
Israeli Prime Minister Nutenyahu in his final speech said Iran must be destroyed because of the Holocaust.
This has brought huge guffaws of laughter from around the world.
The Holocaust has been disproved so many times it is a joke
Jews claim God promised Palestine to them, where is the proof ? the deed of sale ?
again laughable.
Jews say they are gods chosen people, but they crucified him and dont believe in him, any way the word Jew means believer but they are not believers.
This is not antisemitic as Jews are not a semitic people, they are kazhars
the semites are the palestinians, the rightful people to all the land stolen
by the dirty jew.
Its time we turned the tables on the jew and started burning them out
These atrocities are why when Israel is run out of the Middle East the J*** will never be allowed to invade and claim any other place in the world. They had this chance but their hate and rampant cruelty blew it.
there was once before 170 years a saying :
PEACE TO THE COTTAGES + WAR TO THE PALACES !
today decadence of moral + decency everywhere .
I would adapt the MM comment to speak of Moslems in Europe. We have the problem that Semites are dick-heads, bolstered by their religions, devoid of intellect and wilfully so. They just blindly spread their low-quality DNA.
CHIMPANZIONISTS
Chimpanzees are mans closest relative, but wheras one is highly evolved and intelligent, looks after its young and and lives peacefully in groups, human beings do not.
Chimpanzees dont have a pharmaceutical industry, taxation, wars to keep weapons industries and armies going, and dont have any twin towers nonsense.
But they are on the verge of changes, senior Chimpz are claiming that new York central park was promised to them by god,
and they have been moving back to what they claim is the land of their forefathers and killing everything in their wake.
As this land is being claimed by senior Chimpz, the closest thing they have to royalty in monkeyland, its being called
” Isroyal ” and non Chimpanzees are not allowed there.
The chimpz claim that they are gods chosen monkeys and can do as they please, and it is causing concern that they have colllared all the bananna trees, and sell them to the hungry lesser monkeys at huge interest, but its ok because lesser monkeys have no souls and are just Gimoys, or rubbish.
The chimpz pray against a large brick wall by banging their heads on it, the prayers are always about how to kill more of the neighbouring monkeys and steal their belongings, they connive and scheme to get the other monkeys to fight among themselves, while they sell them sticks and large stones to hurt their neighbours with, and they use their huge weapons stores called WMDs
to threaten neighbouring monkey colonies.
They also say god wants them to cut off the ends of their willies which they do to baby chimpz with a sharp stone, they say god loves them and wants them to destroy the whole world and they have many ideas to achieve this, but strangely this god allowed 6 million of them with the ends cut from their willies to be put into death camps and be made into lampshades and bars of soap, but many say this is just monkeytalk
Ellis Taylor is right on the money well said my mate
@ellis taylor..it doesn’t really matter whether jews are semites or khazars..since both are a mongrel ethnic group. Though the genetic evidence supports their Semitic origins. Check out the chapter from the newest edition of ‘Behind Communism’ by Frank Britton.
The Jew is hate.
Well said on both posts Ellis. We get all the analogies because there is a lot of truth in them.
To X-variant: there are mongrels all around the world but they are not this endless problem. The Jews are from thousands of years of incest and it gave them the psychotic ingroup preference and outgroup hostility. How come you keep sniffing Crowley?
Judea delenda est!
That may sound harsh, but those people are vermin and nits grow into lice.
Be assured! Naftali will go as schaff! The Lords prayer has built up protection, ”Thy will be done”.
Every life is short, and now are the last times.
It will be swift.
All the heathen Israeli generals will regret their position.
All the jews, confessing, are heathen.
Just read Hess.
Marx. Samuel. Cremieux.
They are the heathen.
@lewis jones…Their incestual relations are subsidiary to their mongrel origins, which is the root of the problem. Yes, there are mongrels all over the world, (Arabs, mestizos, mulattoes etc.) & if it wasn’t for the Jewish mongrel cult, these other mongrel ethnic groups would be conspiring to rule the world & mongrelize/eliminate the Aryans too….
‘Before Hitler was, I am.’ -Crowley
The ethnocentric Jewish only State carries out genocide and destruction of the Palestinians, destroying their homes, farms, hospitals, schools, water supply, etc.
This Jewish only state is 100% supported by Evangelical Christians, most are very upset their modern Moses Bibi Netanyahu got deposed in the last election. These Christians who say they follow the teachings of Jesus care nothing for the victims and love the killer Jews.
The holy book of these Jews and Christians says God ordained the State:
The New Testament specifically says this in Romans,
——————
https://www.biblehub.com/niv/romans/13.htm
Submission to Governing Authorities
1Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.”
——————
So how do these believers in God and State justify in their mind modern Israel? If God ordained Israel, as these Evangelicals believe, then how can Israel be so evil?
What is the correct answer to this conundrum of evil and the state? How can the state be evil if God appoints our rulers?
The answer is obvious to anyone who has a free mind and is rational and objective. There is no God appointing our rulers, and the idea that God is intervening in human affairs is an incorrect idea although widely believed.
The priest writes the holy book in the name of divine authority in order to get political power. That is what is really going on, and those who want power over others are evil, and thus politics is about getting political power through lies and deception – and the holy book is the primary means of establishing evil over mankind.
This is obvious to any rational honest person.