Israel's Home Destruction

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Why does Israel have a policy of destroying Palestinian homes? How is this policy justified both on the international stage and domestically? How has the changing landscape affected Palestinian sense of homeland, attachment and/or loss?


Yesterday I took a tour through the Nablus's Old City - a beautiful, ancient city that is architecturally similar to the Old City of Jerusalem. My tour guide pointed out the usual historical sites such as ancient mosques, the famous Turkish bath house, and the crowded markets. However, the tourguide couldnít help but to include recent history as well - such as blown up buildings and houses. He pointed to specific places where during the last major invasion (April 2002), the Israeli military tore down homes for the sole purpose of providing better transportation routes for tanks into the narrow roadways in the old city. In fact most of the buildings destroyed had been done so for strategic reasons rather than for ìsecurity reasonsî. The destroyed homes were not those of resistance fighters, but civilians. After that particular invasion, it was discovered that entire families were wiped out.


I was also brought to a large empty lot that is now used as a parking lot. It is the site of a huge building that was completely destroyed by a missile. A middle-aged man appeared out of nowhere and told our guide the story of this site. He told us that the missile not only destroyed the targeted building, but many buildings and homes that surrounded it as well. He pointed to the buildings that still stood and the damage still visible on them. He finished the story by saying that his 10-year-old child was playing on the street when the missile struck the building - killing him immediately.


During the April 2002 invasion, the military went house-to-house searching for people who might be a ìmilitantî. They didnít engage in this search by going to the front door of peopleís homes, but by going through peopleís walls into the adjacent building.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6739