Demolishing houses, would any American accept this?

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Destruction of homes by an occupying force is unequivocally wrong under international law; but so is building settlement/cities on land that is occupied, as is the imprisonment of 10,000 Palestinian prisoners that are held in administrative detention without due process.

How bitterly ironic it is that in the country which values "home ownership" as the epitome of the "American Dream," the United States allows (Caterpillar is also a US company) the wanton destruction of family houses. No American would allow this to occur in this country, at least not without a tremendous fight which would be supported by both the media and the population. Not so in Palestine where correspondent M. Abu Ghazaleh writes:

The husband, wife and 10 children had lived in the 100 square meter home house just six months after building it for 200,000 shekels. Neighbors called on the Red Cross and human rights organizations to assist the newly homeless family.

As for today's demolitions, the Jerusalem Municipal Court postponed demolishing Ghadir Abu Ghalia's Issariya neighborhood home for 24 hours yesterday after he paid 60,000 shekels to obtain a stay. Early last month Israeli forces demolished part of the house where Ghalia lived with his wife and four young children. At that time he paid 40,000 shekels to stop the demolition. His family built the 150 square meter three bedroom home for 350,000 shekels just four months ago. Israeli forces did demolish the home on Tuesday. [rest of report]

For a salutory exposure of Israeli war crimes, reported and publicized BY ISRAELI (!) visit the website of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD).