Destroying Your Home With Love And Wisdom

[Violet_Crumble]

By Chris McGreal
at Jabaliya refugee camp
18 October, 2004
The Guardian

The Israeli general who commanded the destruction of the only Jewish settlement in the Sinai before it was returned to Egypt recently offered Ariel Sharon advice on how to carry out his pledge to remove settlers from the Gaza strip.

"Evicting someone from the home they've lived in for 20 years isn't a simple matter," wrote Brigadier General Obed Tira. "To remove a family from its home is embarrassing and difficult, and that is why the removal needs to be done with a lot of love and a lot of wisdom."

<snip>

The scale of the destruction - about 20 acres of homes, shops and roads razed or ground into the sand - matched the Israelis' controversial assault on Jenin refugee camp two years ago. But the death toll in Jabaliya was double that with about 130 people killed, one in six of them children 15 or younger.

Within hours of pulling out of Jabaliya, the army's bulldozers were at work again in another Gaza refugee camp, Rafah.

"One would have thought that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip would decrease house demolitions," said Kenneth Ross, director of Human Rights Watch, after visiting Jabaliya.

http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-mcgreal181004.htm

[MatrixEscape]

1. It is a travesty.

I strongly agree with Chomsky about treatment of the concept of terrorism today.

Terrorist are those who are weak, or oppressed. Those who fight the terrorists are those who are strong or have power. It is a simple equation, but I have not been able to refute it.

People who do not understand the Palestinian side of the equation and who cannot have compassion for their experience must be simplistic and prone to buying into to jingoism.

The use of the word "terror" has become nothing more than a Newspeak way of justifying insanity, barbarism, and political manipulation. The misuse of this word alone is, to me, one of the greatest war crimes of this century. It obscures the truth and serves to blind people to important issues. It has become a sledgehammer on freedom, rights, and a smokescreen against any possible, intelligent solutions.

I say we declare and demand a moratorium on the use of that word. It is like an out of control monster and a cloud of darkness that does more harm than good. It evokes only fearful emotions and suspends thoughtful consideration. It is the curare of today.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. It's one of several words I'd declare a moratorium on...

There's quite a few concepts that really get abused by the powerful...

Freedom
Democracy
Peace
and the immediate banning of any superlatives that could be used by those with taste in their arse to describe Green Day or The Offspring...



about house demolitions. While anyone but the most blind can see that they are carried out systematically on the civilian Palestinian population for no other reason than the houses are there, I was told by someone who worked there for UNRWA that most of his Palestinian employees had their homes destroyed, not once, but several times. And that there's a psychological thing involved in it as there's an Arab curse that goes along the lines of: 'May god destroy your home'. So, Israel merrily destroying homes (and in many cases in Jerusalem, sending the demolition bill to the Palestinian homeowner) has a lot to do with humiliation...

Violet...