For the sixth year in a row, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is offering a summer work camp intended to foster learning, discussion, and friendship between Palestinians, Israelis and internationals.
Home of Disabled Man Demolished by Government Fred Schlomka
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
In my years of involvement with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions I have never seen such a heartless and senseless act of cruelty such as was committed by the municipal government of Lod, a town in central Israel. A 23 year old Palestinian citizen of Israel who is confined to a wheelchair, Hany Zbedah, was removed from his house which was demolished with all contents inside.
It took over 200 police and paramilitary police, a helicopter and two bulldozers to destroy the 40 square meter (360 square feet) shed addition to his family home. The house itself has two rooms providing living and sleeping space for six people. After years of saving, Hany’s Father had renovated the small shed adjacent to their home in order to provide him with a better quality of life. The doors were extra wide to accommodate the wheelchair, a special bath had been installed so he could bathe in privacy, and a ramp built to the door providing access and a modicum of independence.
The house is owned by Amidar, the Israeli Government’s housing company. The shed addition had been existing since 1971. No permits were available for renovations to the building since the site has been slated for redevelopment at some future date. After being refused a permit for the renovation the family quietly went ahead and improved the property without altering the exterior except to paint it. Was the municipality happy that a poor family would try and improve their lot, and that of their most needy member? No, quite the contrary, they sent two companies of police and soldiers to flush out this menace to society, and left him sitting on the sidewalk while his newly renovated home was demolished with the contents inside.
Hany’s father sit’s languishing in jail, beaten and taken by Government stormtroopers when he non-violently protested their vile act. Two others suffered the same fate.
I sat with Hany for some time, as the bulldozers mopped up the rubble. His handicap is only physical, and has been with him from birth, restricting the movements of arms and legs, distorting his fingers, twisting his face so his words are slurred and head movements jerky. But when Hany smiles he lights up the space around him with a light that comes from a pure soul. Five minutes in his company are enough to convince you that there might even be hope for his Israeli Municipal tormentors who have done their worst with him but evoke no rancor or hate, only puzzlement and sadness. Hany’s eyes light up when he talks of his work repairing computers, and the Internet that has become his window to the world. One quickly realizes that here is a man with a quick mind and a ready answer to my probing questions. There is a quiet wisdom is his eyes, and a keen intelligence hampered but a little by his physical infirmity.
One wonders where the humanity has gone in a society that allows these atrocities to occur on a daily basis to minority citizens. And one has to ask the Jewish people in Israel where their outrage is, where their sense of common decency has gone, to allow any among us to be treated like dogs and garbage. Has the legacy of the Holocaust done this to us? Are we so traumatized as a people that we truly cannot see others as deserving a life? Are we so devoid of feeling that we cannot even consider a non-Jew to be worthy . . . of existence in this land?
The bombing today in Jerusalem was also a terrible thing. Fifteen people killed, many more injured. Lives destroyed, families shattered. Where do they come from these terrorists, and why? Over twelve thousand homes destroyed in the Occupied Territories since 1967. Where do they come from? Several hundred thousand people with shattered lives. Where do they come from? Children watching, their fathers beaten. Where do they come from? Women screaming. Where do they come from?
And yet I can only see Hany’s eyes, shining as he talked of his computers, as the bulldozed scraped the last of his house he was still smiling, at me, a Jew.
Hany’s email address is hanyz2@hotmail.com
I am sure that he would appreciate any words of kindness for today’s loss. Thank you
About ICAHD ICAHD is a non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.
