Four Homes Demolished, 35 People Homeless

We went to visit Eyad Sabarneh, the boy who was shot last Friday directly through his upper thigh. After two surgeries in which a metal plate and external pins were inserted, the doctors are determining whether his leg will have to be amputated. He will be in the hospital for at least five weeks. I'm posting pictures of his leg taken in the hospital here. The whole time we were there, Eyad's four year old brother sat on the bed holding his hand.

From Beit Ommar 2-16-07

On Sunday, the army entered Beit Ommar again and another child, Kamil Mohamed Awad, age 11, was shot with a dumdum bullet in his upper arm. Because dumdum bullets are designed to break apart upon impact to inflict the most damage, he now has pieces of metal lodged throughout his upper arm and torso. He was taken to a hospital in Hebron and released later in the day. The next day he attended school, demonstrating the normalization of these assaults. The shooting occurred after a funeral of two men who had passed away the night before. The cemetery is near the entrance to Beit Ommar and therefore where the soldiers hang out. The Israeli Army pushed mourners back away from the street, which runs close to a settlement, and people responded with an impromptu demonstration.

On Wednesday, we got a frantic call that the Israeli Army had come to a small village called Amelkhar, near the Carmiel settlement, and was trying to demolish 4 homes as part of a string of home demolitions in the wider Yatta region. The residents of Amelkhar have lived on the land in permanent and semi-permanent homes for centuries. Recently, the Carmiel settlement was built on their land and a program of displacement of the Palestinian residents began. Yesterday, two bulldozers were accompanied by over 50 soldiers and additional private security. We joined the Palestinian residents as they resisted the bulldozing, first by blockading ourselves into one of the homes with the residents, and then, after being forcibly dragged from the home, sitting down in front of the bulldozers along with the women of the community until the Israeli soldiers violently dragged us all away.

The community was made up of 6 homes, one of which was a concrete building and one of which was an open tent. These were the only structures left standing. Two homes made of stone and two homes made of corrugated tin were razed to the ground. When I asked one of the soldiers for a reason, I was told that "the story dates back 4000 years." Residents were given 10-15 minutes to pull their belongings from their homes before the bulldozers destroyed them. One woman, Tareed Al-Hathaleen, and her 1 and half year old son were left with a partially damaged home. Her husband, Majed Al-Hathaleen, was arrested trying to protect his house. Another Palestinian man, Jima'a Al-Hathaleen was also arrested while trying to retrieve money that was left inside his home. Both have been released

The soldiers threw sound grenades into groups of people that included very small children, and beat an elderly man and his wife, Saluman Al-Hathaleen, 55, and Maliha Al-Hathaleen, 50, who were transported by ambulance to Hebron. Soldiers kicked an elderly man's leg that he had recently had surgery on as he sat in front of his home. He already walked with a cane, and was sitting on the ground when the soldier kicked him. Several Palestinian women and older men were thrown to the ground as they attempted to protect their homes. The soldiers also punched myself and another international activist, and threw both of us to the ground. Don't worry - I'm fine, and my small bruises aren't the point.

In all, over 35 people, including many small children and babies, were left completely homeless. When I told a group of soldiers that they should at least watch what they were doing, watch the bulldozer demolish someone's home as they cried, one soldier told me that if I liked Arabs so much I should give them a place to sleep.

When the soldiers left, when it was all over, people went right to work trying to rebuild and salvage what they could. We stayed and helped clean up for a bit, but in the end we got to go home, and that's where what I know of the story ends. We're told that homes in at least four other villages were demolished the same day.

All of this was caught on video tape. I've edited it down to 8 minutes, and you can watch it here.