Home Demolition in East Jerusalem: Hate Does Not Come Easy.

The ISM story reads:

The 15-year old house of Hani Totah, proud father of six children and
one Arabian thoroughbred mare, was demolished upon orders by Israeli police
in November 2005. A year later, he now sits in his brother’s living-room
explaining why he feels compelled to lie to his own children. "I want
a good life for my children. But how can we have peace when the Israelis
want their own house, but won’t let me have one? And the Israelis want
their children to grow up to be doctors and engineers, but want my children
to be homeless criminals?" .
.

Totah’s house is but one of about one hundred family homes in the East
Jerusalem district of Wadi Ij-Juus that have been targeted for demolition.
.

The reason offered for this is that the houses are built too close to
the Jerusalem Wall, although Totah and his neighbours are certain that
the Israeli authorities simply do not want Palestinian communities to
erect buildings within the confines of the city. Yet with rents prohibitively
inflated, there is little other choice than to build one’s own house,
especially for families with children.
.

Having earlier been forced out of the rather exclusive inner-city neighbourhood
of Qatamon, Totah’s family are now once again being chased off their land.
.

A former rubbish-dumping site, Wadi Ij-Juus is now seen as increasingly
attractive for expansion of the Old City’s tourist facilities and contractors
have long been eager to exploit the area. Israeli police and judiciary
have also long tried to pressure Totah into relinquishing his land – a
decision that he says would not be up to him alone but to the entire family
as they are all old Jerusalemites and intimately connected to this "the
most beautiful" of Palestinian cities.
.

Tired of waiting, the authorities then decided to take the issue into
their own hands. As Totah summarised it, "If we sell, they buy. If we
don’t sell, they take the land anyway." Without prior notice, they arrived
in the middle of the day in order to tear the house down. Upon receiving
a phone call from his frantic wife who at the time was home alone, Totah
had to force his way through the police barricades blocking all the entrances
to the valley and the doorway to his own home.
.

Confused and angry, he attempted to dissuade the police and demolition
workers present from going through with the demolition, explaining that
they had received no warning. It was explained to him later on that what
the authorities usually do is go to homes at times when they assume no
one will be home, stick a notice on the door, take a picture, remove the
notice and then leave. Totah hurried to the Israeli court in order to
have the demolition order overturned. With the help of a lawyer, his emergency
petition was successful and a court official informed the Israeli police
at the scene of their decision to halt the demolition.
.

As soon as the police heard this, the bulldozer was put to work, eating
away at the red-tiled roof. By the time Totah’s eldest son arrived home
from school all that remained of the former family home was a large pile
of cracked walls and tangled wires. His father, up until then having channelled
his sorrow and anger into action, could no longer contain himself as he
saw the tears roll down his son’s cheeks. Occasionally stopping to salvage
some belonging identified among the rubble, Totah stumbled about blinded
by tears and disbelief.
.

As if this was not enough, Totah and his family are now forced to pay
NIS420 (Israeli currency) every month until year 2012 to cover the municipality’s
expenses for the demolition and the massive police presence. The thick
stack of bills and receipts is a constant reminder of the violent injustice
of the Israeli legal system vis-a-vis Palestinian citizens.
.

Israeli media were quick to cover the story, an American embassy official
was there to witness the destruction and all the Palestinian political
factions expressed their vehement condemnation of the act. Although comforted
by these expressions of support, the family were in dire need of practical
help. After having spent two weeks crowded into a small canvas tent donated
by the Red Cross, one of Totah’s brothers insisted that they move in with
him. The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, ICAHD, has since
taken upon itself to locate funding for rebuilding the house and in helping
with the construction.
.

The rebuilding has, however, not been easy. The municipality has repeatedly
warned the Palestinian construction workers that if they proceed with
the work, they might be arrested and two workers have indeed been detained
and later dropped off outside of a Jerusalem checkpoint. International
volunteers from Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
(EAPPI) and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) today joined in the
work in order to act as some sort of deterrence against police interference.
As wooden rafters were being hammered into place overhead, internationals
cleared the broken tiles and other rubble from off what will eventually
become the floor of the house.
.

Totah’s young boys eagerly joined in, shovelling stones and shards of
glass into buckets with their bare hands. Every once in a while, they
would stop to listen to their father explaining how beautiful their home
used to be, snuggled in between friendly neighbours and with lovingly
tended flowerbeds at the back – now a pile of rubble, a home, a crime-scene.
.
As they sifted through a pile of sand, one of the boys found a collection
of shiny stickers which he carefully dusted off and put in his pocket.
He glanced up at one of the international volunteers, flashing a shy little
smile, as if embarrassed over his sudden nostalgia.
.

In the afternoon, a cement truck arrived and the construction workers
proceeded to guide a giant hose spitting out wet cement at high speed
around the roof. Half-way, the cement supply ran out and the second truck
had not yet arrived. A few tense phone calls later, it was explained that
the missing truck was stuck at a checkpoint somewhere in Jerusalem. Totah
sat himself down on a rock to wait. "I look calm but my heart is beating
hard in my chest. They have to hurry, the police could be here at any
minute and that would be it." Fortunately, the truck arrived only moments
later and the work could continue. Now, the cement must be let to dry
for at least five days and so work is suspended until after Eid.
.

It is estimated that the house, which when finished will be about half
the size of the original home, will take a couple of more weeks to complete.
.
Until then, Totah and his family are still living with one of his brothers.
.

For two of his other brothers, the home demolition proved the last straw.
.
Afraid for their families’ safety, they now live in the USA and have no
plans on returning to Palestine in the near future. "You must understand",
Totah says. "We are from Jerusalem, not Nablus or Ramallah or Bethlehem.
.
We have more then 300 years of history in this very area. If we cannot
live here, we would rather move to somewhere completely different" .
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