Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1997, Page 11, 17

Roots of Terror

Israel Aims to Drive Palestinians From Homeland Through Harassment, Permit Denials, Demolitions

By Stephen J. Sosebee

Off a main road north of Jerusalem is the Palestinian village of Nabi Samweel. In August, Israeli troops stormed into the tiny village and demolished four "unlicensed" homes belonging to residents who trace their family roots in the area back hundreds of years. The village sits on the highest mountain around Jerusalem and is the site of the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet, who is sacred to Muslims and Jews alike.

Only 200 Palestinians are left in the village, but to enter you have to pass a gated military base surrounding the mosque, which has been forcibly turned into a synagogue, and then drive past the home of a local Arab collaborator, in the employ of the Israeli intelligence and occupation authorities. Only after getting past these obstacles can one reach the sites where four homes have been turned into heaps of rubble. It was there that a lawyer, Mohammed Barakat, who is now a quadrapelic from an auto accident in Jordan a few years back, told me the tragic story of his poor village:

"In 1971, the Israelis destroyed all of our homes surrounding the mosque, which was the old part of the village, and forced us to move into these homes about 200 meters away. They are homes abandoned by people who fled to Jordan in the war of June 1967. Since then, the Israelis have not given us a single permit to build on our own land. In 1967 there were maybe five persons to a house. Now we are nearly 20 people trying to live in a modest home. And still, we have not been permitted to build a single room here.

"This is a policy designed to force us to leave our village. We are living on a high mountain and a holy site, so they do not want any Arabs here and are using many methods to get us to leave. The soldiers from the base regularly come and harass us, checking I.D.s and humiliating the youths in front of the people.

"We have no services either. There is no school, so we have to send our children to nearby villages. We applied for a permit for a driver to take the children to school in a bus, but this was denied. They have to take a local bus, and then walk in the heat or rain for a kilometer from where it leaves them to the school.

"We do not have a clinic or public facility here for anyone to use and there are no phones. We tried to fix the roads, but this, too, was denied. From the four homes that were destroyed last week, 23 people are now homeless. Many more are affected, but some are away in Jordan and others are back living in the cramped conditions of their previous situation. Twenty-three people, however, are living in tents supplied by the Red Cross. The army came at 9 a.m., told the people they had five minutes to remove their things and then bulldozed the homes. Many people lost valuables. You will see now when you tour the area clothes, food and other items in the rubble."

I did not interrupt the man as he spoke. Too few journalists are willing to come and hear his story, and he was eager to express himself. Even among the Palestinians a few miles away in Ramallah, there is little knowledge of Nabi Samweel and its plight.

"The objective of this government is to put pressure on the people. They want us to leave, to go from this spot, our land, so they can further build their own settlements," he continued. "Just down the mountain, go, look there, you will see the construction of Ramot, a settlement that was built on our land 10 years ago. They have all of the services we lack. Roads, schools, clinics, phones, and space. No permits are denied there. Their children play in parks that were my father's olive trees.

"Netanyahu tells the Americans that this building is only to address the issue of 'natural growth,' but where is our natural growth? We have families here living five persons in a kitchen. They sleep, eat and live in a single room. People became fed up and built a new room without permission, which would never come, and the army came and destroyed that room. This is the situation we are facing. We have our land, our rights, but this government will not release us.

"We want peace. We are against the bombs and terror, but what is the cause of this terror? Look at those children who are seeking their toys in the rubble of their home. What do you think they are going to believe about peace when they grow older? This is the real terrorism. Demolishing someone's home on their own land because they wanted space to raise a family.

"Netanyahu speaks of democracy and peace, but these are just slogans. It means nothing. And America, your country, is also to blame. We ask any sponsor of peace to be fair, to not take the side of one party, and to recognize oppression. But from the Untied States we just get more warnings about terrorism. This is the cause of violence, especially at a time when we are asking to live in peace."

I went down to visit the four families living in the Red Cross tents.

"You journalists just come and write things, but never write about a solution. What is the point talking to you?" asks one man, whose family of four now share a tent the size of a small room. When I tell him that it is not the job of a journalist to offer solutions, he snorts and goes on smoking quietly.

"We want peace," says another man. "But you cannot have it under these conditions. Tomorrow, Peace Now will come from Israel and hold a demonstration with us against this policy of destroying our homes, but what will it do? They are powerless to stop their own leaders from taking us closer to war."

"We are sick of fighting," Mohammed Barakat, the crippled lawyer, tells me before we leave. "This peace agreement was to say enough. Enough killing and suffering and pain for everyone. But this government of Netanyahu is pushing us everyday to the point of returning to the armed struggle. When you see your land and rights being taken and you have tried the path of peace and it failed, what other options remain for you to find a way to survive on your own land?"

As I drove out of Nabi Samweel toward the main road to Jerusalem, dozens of new Israeli cars roared past in the direction of the expensive homes in the Ramot settlement. Their occupants are completely oblivious to conditions in a place just over the hill in Nabi Samweel. But the only key to peace and personal security is the fulfillment of basic rights for everyone. Instead, the drums of war are beating louder. With each new home demolition in the West Bank, and the "thickening" of each Jewish settlement, another Palestinian youth will see the explosions of suicide bombs as the only sounds to which Netanyahu and his cronies will listen.