Forcing the Victim to Pay for His Victimization
Since 1967, Israel has demolished the homes of over 16,000 Palestinian families. Last year alone, it demolished over 4,000 Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem in an effort to drive out the Arabs and “Judaize’ the Holy City.
Israel claims that the homes are illegally built, but at the same time the Jewish authorities refuse to issue permits for Arabs in order to compel them to find residency elsewhere. The Palestinians see no reason to accept such racist policy from an occupation authority, no less. Why should they seek permission to build on their own land? So they built anyway. And then Israel demolishes the homes.
In recent years, Israel has found a new premise. It claims that many of the Palestinian homes were previously Jewish homes. And that the Jews lost them after the 1948 war. There is truth in this. Some of the Palestinian homes were owned by Jews who were forced out of the city after the 1948 war in retaliation for Israeli ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes. The Jews who lost homes in East Jerusalem is in the dozens as opposed to the thousands, literally thousands, of Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes from West Jerusalem. As the New York Times recently wrote:
But in typical fashion Israel only enforces the deeds of a handful of Jews while dismissing the equally valid Palestinian deeds numbering in the thousands. It is obvious way Israel treats equal claims with discrimination since in that racist state everything comes down to Jewishness. This isn’t apartheid?
And so Israel continues to throw out Palestinians from their homes. And the cruelty of Israel is as such that it charges Palestinians for their own eviction: 70,000 shekels or roughly $18,500.
It isn’t enough that Israel throws off Palestinians from their land and then destroys their homes and most of their possessions inside as they weep and without any sense of remorse. But on top of this it foots the Palestinians with the ‘bill’ of destruction. And I say ‘bill’, because the bulldozer and clean-up does not cost Israel $18,000, but Israel charges a fixed fee for the Palestinians in an effort to further demoralize them. By charging them that fee this is all part of the program of ethnic cleansing, Israel hopes Palestinians will simply leave Jerusalem all together to avoid paying. The average American middle class family could not come up with $18,000 without taking out a loan. How is the average improvised Palestinian family supposed to come up with $18,500 especially after losing most of their possessions and their home in which they could leverage loan? This is an unforgivable level of immorality of Israel’s part. The nation is not ashamed to first ethnically cleanse Palestinians, but then has the temerity to charge them for it. This is akin to the Nazis forcing Jews to pay for their room and board in the ghettos and camps.
Some Palestinians recognizing the insurmountable Israeli determination to destroy their home - they know that once they receive that Israeli notice they will not be able to defend themselves without risking death. And they know fellow people who have lost their homes. And determined to stay in Jerusalem afterwards and refusing to accept Israeli satisfaction in then further seeking to humiliating them by burdening their family with $18,500. These people can avoid paying for their own eviction by demolishing their homes themselves. And some Palestinians do. There is dignity in that. But these Palestinians often suffer depression and even attempted suicides after they destroy their homes on Israeli orders. It is tough.
All of this is inhumane, enraging, unconscionable and unforgivable. But I will end on a hopeful note that reflects the tireless Palestinian resistance to Zionism and determination not to be pushed aside and an uncompromising goal to liberate their country from this cruel occupation that in the end, no matter the tough days now, will bring freedom and justice to Palestine.
A true story: A Palestinian mother hugs her three sons in East Jerusalem as Israeli bulldozers demolish their home. ‘Hub el-deb’ - the Bear’s Embrace as it’s known in Arabic. She tells them ‘don’t cry, those who built it will rebuild it.’
Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________________
http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/forcing-the-victim-to-pay-for-his-victimization/
