On Wednesday, December 13, 2006, Maisa Abu Ghazaleh of the Palestine News Network (PNN, Jerusalem) filed this story:
Israeli forces demolish home twice and Jerusalem man says he will rebuild again
Link: http://english.pnn.ps/...
Israeli bulldozers demolished the home of Ahmed Dari in East Jerusalem under the pretext he did not have an Israeli-issued permit.
The father of four told PNN that he was surprised by the large number of forces, police and border guards that accompanied municipal workers to destroy his house. "The demolition workers could have taken out the furnishings, or allowed us to, but this was rejected. Everything was destroyed: the house and everything in it."
His house had already been destroyed once in 2004, but with the assistance of Rabbis for Human Rights, it was rebuilt in 2005.
Dari told PNN this time that he will work to rebuild the house again and will not give up his right to live in his homeland. He described the second demolition of the home where he lives with his wife and children as "unjust and outside the confines of international law."
Earlier, Trocaire, an overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, sent an appeal out for its members to email the Mayor of Jerusalem to halt the demolition of Ahmed Dari’s home. It was apparently unsuccessful.
This story is actually just another example of ongoing injustice replayed many times over in the Palestinian territories over the past four decades of military occupation, this one in occupied East Jerusalem. Routinely, after demolishing Palestinian homes for one reason or another, the city (East Jerusalem) or military (West Bank)government refuses to grant a building permit that would allow the home to be rebuilt legally. Members of Rabbis for Human Rights, Israel Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD), and other peace activist groups often participate in helping the home owner to rebuild without a permit. The result, like this one, is often another re-demolition.
According to Jeff Halper, founder of ICAHD, who estimates that there have been 11,000 house demolitions in the Palestinian territories since this conflict began, house demolitions reflect the refusal of Israel to acknowledge that there is another people living in the country with legitimate claims and rights of their own (The message of the bulldozers, written November 16th, 2006).
Crossposted at Eternal Hope: http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/