Don't say we did not know #487
Palestinian Jordan Valley
February 10, 2016
Reporting: Nurit Popper, Daphne Banai and Rajaa Natur
Face to face with incitement
What makes Palestinian youngsters go out holding knives? What drives a 54-year old truck driver to smash into a group of soldiers waiting for a ride at a junction?
Here it is, for example:
Jiftliq village – 2 homes and 3 sheep pens demolished at dawn, leaving 18 persons, among them 4 babies and another 3 children homeless.
Jiftliq village - a main water pipe cut and destroyed by the Israeli Civil Administration, leaving 52 families (300 persons) southwest of Jiftliq without any water.
Fassail – I saw the 'incitement' in the eyes of Zakariah, Hajjar's 8-year old son. Zakariah's home in Fassail has been demolished 4 times. The last demolition took place during the extreme heat wave in August 2015. Zakariah's family was expelled from Ein Gedi in 1948. Later it was expelled from Jericho and from Nu'eima. Now his mother says: "By God, we have nowhere to go any more!" Even the present rocky terrain gives them no rest. We ask Hajjar how we could help, and she smiles shyly, saying "No, no, thank goodness you came here". But Zakariah's eyes spit fire.
In Fassail the Israeli army destroyed one dwelling tent, home to 4 adults and 4 children, one sheep pen, and... one stinking outhouse! The tent, incidentally, was donated by the European Union about a month after the last demolition.
Karzaliya – (Rajaa's report) the homes of 2 families destroyed – 25 persons remain homeless. Rajaa pleads – "Do something – people are standing around the rubble in the rain, and have no shelter".
Al Maqassar (near Hamra Checkpoint) – On Thursday, February 2, 2016, bulldozers demolished 2 dwellings, home to 21 persons – women and men, babies and elderly, and 2 sheep pens. The Red Cross donated a small tent. Today at 9 a.m. the bulldozers returned and destroyed the Red Cross' small tent and everything remaining – another dwelling tent. The father, Nidal, wrings his hands, asking, "What do we do now?" There is nothing left! His daughters stand in the rain, shelterless, the sheep – its wool dripping with water – around them, and everyone looks to us, desperate...
These are the doings of the Occupation Army on a single morning in the Palestinian Jordan Valley. Every single child of these families who experienced the arrival of the bulldozers and army jeep at dawn needs no social networks to hate and hate more, and there is no stronger stimulant than despair.
... And still, farmers who showed us the way to the cut water pipes greeted us on our way back with a crate of eggplants, a gift.