J'ai perdu ma maison/ I lost my house

(c) Anne Paq.

Khader Rabah, de Wallaja, dans la tente erigée pres des ruines de sa maison detruite par les forces d'occupation israeliennes le 22 mars 2006. Voir photos et texte ci-dessous.

Khader Rabah; from Wallaja; in the tent erected next to the remains of his house destroyed by the Israeli occupying forces on the 22nd of March; 2006. See pictures and text below.

Photos de Wallaja

(c) Anne Paq.

Maison detruite a Wallaja. Voir texte ci-dessous.

Destroyed house in Wallaja. See Text below

photo Al-Wallaja

(c) Anne Paq
A Wallaja, une maison palestinienne detruite par l'armee israelienne, 11 personnes sans toit. Ils ont eu 20 minutes pour sortir le maximum d'affaires de la maison. Des affaires restent entassees dans des sacs poubelles. Voir le texte dans blog precedent.

At Wallaja, a destroyed Palestinian house by the Israeli military. 11 persons are now without a roof. They only had 20 minutes to save the maximum of things. Some cloths were hastily put in garbage bags.
See Text in previous blog.

Deux maisons detruites a Al-Wallaja/ Two houses demolised in Al-Wallaja

25 Mars 2006.

«  J'etais au travail quand j'ai appris que notre maison avait ete detruite. Les soldats etaient partout et nous ont empeche d'approcher. Nous sommes onze dans notre famille. Maintenant on est dispersé entre différentes maisons. Je ne sais pas ce qui va se passer. Certains veulent recontruire la maison mais je ne veux pas vivre dans le stress permanent. », voilà le temoignage d'une des filles de la famille de Khader Rabah visiblement encore sous le choc: « je n'arrive pas à penser ». Deux jours auparavant, le mercredi 22 mars, un buldozer israelien a detruit leur maison, accompagné d'une dizaine de jeeps militaires. Il n'y a pas eu d'avertissement. La justification donnée est laconique,la maison a été construite sans permis, une excuse utilisée à maintes reprises par les Israeliens afin de justifier la poltique de destruction des maisons palestiniennes.

Le petit village de Al-Wallaja; pres de Bethlehem, est magnifique. Il est reputé pour ses reserves d'eau et ses terres fertiles; mais son histoire est tragique. En 1948, la plupart des habitants ont été chassés; beaucoup ont fui en Jordanie et sont devenus réfugiés. Le village a été complêtement détruit. Certains habitants ont reconstruit le village un peu plus loin; la partie la plus fertile étant désormais accaparée par les Israéliens. En 1967, tout le village a été annexé à Jérusalem, conduisant à une situation absurde. Une partie des habitants vit du côté de Jérusalem, l'autre partie en Cisjordanie. Les terres ont été confisquées notamment pour construire la colonie de Gilo. Depuis les années 80, les autorités israéliennes utilisent plusieurs tactiques pour faire partir les habitants.
Aujourd'hui le village est dans une enclave, coincée entre plusieurs colonies. Il se trouve sur le tracé du projet de la ligne ferrovière Tel Aviv-Jerusalem et sur le Mur, bien que personne ne sache exactement où il va être construit. De nombreuses maisons ont des avis de démolitions et aucun permis de construire n'est délivré par les autorités israéliennes.
Les habitants ne se laissent pas intimider, les maisons sont demolies et toujours reconstruites. Les fondations d'une nouvelle école viennent d'etre posées. Une autre manière de résister.

Une tente a été installée près des décombres de la maison. Le père de Famille reste là, il lève les bras au ciel en affirmant qu'ils vont rester ici et reconstruire. Son fils regarde les décombres avec un air si triste. Nous prenons une tasse de thé sur le toit d'une dépendance qui a été épargnée; à côté d'une pile de sacs poubelles où ont été rapidement entassé le maximum d'affaires. Que prendriez-vous de votre vie en 20 minutes? Les soldats sont arrivés 20 minutes avant le buldozer, ne laissant que peu de temps pour évacuer le minimum.Des Palestiniens ont été blessés et arrêtés quand ils ont essayé d'arrêter la demolition.

Depuis le début de l'occupation des territoires palestiniens en 1967, plus de 10,000 maisons palestiniennes ont été démolies. Les Palestiniens reconstruisent toujours.


26 March 2006.
« I was at work when our home was demolished. There were many soldiers that stopped us. We are eleven in our family. Now we sleep in different houses. I do not know what will happen for us. Some want to rebuild the house but I do not want. It will be too much stress to live there. », declared of the woman of the family of Khader Rabah. She was still shocked and said: « I cannot manage to think straight ». Two days ago, on the 22th of March; an Israeli buldozer destroyed their house in the village of Al-Wallaja, accompanied by many Israeli military jeeps and soldiers. There was no previous warning. They used the usual excuse that they did nit have the permit to build the house there.

Located next to Bethlehem, the small village of Al-Wallaja is beautiful. It is reputed for all its springs and fertile lands, but its history is tragic. In 1948; most of the inhabitants were forced to flee and became refugees. All the houses were destroyed. Some inhabitants stayed and re-build some houses a little bit further but the most fertile part was taken by the Israelis. In 1967; all the village was occupied and annexed to Jerusalem, leading to an absurd situation for the Palestinians living in Al-Wallaja/ Part of the lands was consficated to build the settlement of Gilo. Since the 80s the Israeli authorities have used different tactics to make the inhabitants leave the village. Nowadays the village is an enclave caught between the settlements. It is also located on the route of the project of a railway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and also on the route of the Wall. Many houses have demolition orders. Some of them have been, demolished three times and then rebuilt. This is another way to resist. No permit has been delivered. A new school is also being built.

A tent has been sat up next to the destroyed house. The head of the family stays and sleeps there. As he speaks to me; he raises his arms up and tells me that they will rebuild the house built on his grandfather's land. His youngest son is looking at the rubbles with such a sad look. We take a cup of tea on the roof of a building that was not demolished besides a pile of garbage bags where they hastily put some cloths and things. The Israeli soldiers arrived 20 minutes before the bulldozer. What would you take of your life in 20 minutes?

Since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, moçre than 10,000 Palestinian houses have been demolished. The Palestinians always rebuild.

Article on Israeli attack on Jericho's Jail

The Israeli Raid in Jericho: The Background
Stephen Zunes - Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 01:51

The origins of the March 14 Israeli raid of a Palestinian prison in Jericho are rooted in another Israeli raid on a Palestinian city in 2001.
On August 27 of that year, Israeli occupation forces assaulted the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with a U.S.-supplied helicopter gunship and missiles. Their target was PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed instantly. The PFLP vowed to retaliate.

The PFLP, a Marxist movement notorious for engineering a spate of airline hijackings in the early 1970s, had in previous years ended its involvement in international terrorism and had returned from exile to emerge as part of the secular leftist opposition to both the Fatah-dominated Palestine Authority and the Islamist Hamas. As a legal political party, the PFLP regularly put forward candidates in Palestinian elections, though their percentage of the popular vote rarely scored better than the low single digits. The PFLP also maintained an armed militia, though--unlike Hamas and Islamic Jihad--it primarily targeted the Israeli military and police in the occupied territories rather than civilians inside Israel.

Seven weeks after the Israeli assassination of their leader, a PFLP militant assassinated Rehavam Zeevi, head of the far-right Moledet Party, who had been serving as Israeli Tourism Minister in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government. The Moledet Party--which subsequently merged with other far right parties to form the National Union--is even more extremist in ideology than the PFLP, calling for the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories.

In response to Mustafa's murder, the State Department issued only a mild statement reiterating its opposition to Israel's assassination policy. In subsequent months, the Bush administration--with the encouragement of both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders--dropped even this nominal opposition and began to openly defend assassinations by Israeli death squads of suspected Palestinian militants. By contrast, President Bush personally condemned Zeevi's murder, criticized the Palestinian Authority's failure to jail the suspected assassins and PFLP leaders, and demanded that they be punished.

When Israel violently re-occupied Ramallah four months later and launched a six-week siege on Palestinian President Yasir Arafat's offices, President Bush expressed his understanding for the Israeli action--otherwise universally condemned in the international community--on the grounds that the suspected PFLP assassin and three alleged accomplices had sought refuge there. Bush noted how "these people are accused of killing a cabinet official of the Israel government. I can understand why the prime minister wants them brought to justice." He added, "They should be brought to justice if they killed this man in cold blood."

By contrast, there were no American demands to bring to justice the Israeli helicopter pilots or Israeli political and military leaders who were responsible for Mustafa's assassination. Similarly, there was no U.S. criticism of the 1988 Israeli assassination of a member of Arafat's cabinet, Defense Minister Khalid al-Wazir in Tunisia, much less a demand that those responsible for his murder be brought to justice. (An investigation by the Israeli newspaper Maariv revealed that the leader of the seaborne command center who oversaw al-Wazir's murder was Israel's then-deputy military chief Ehud Barak, who would later become Israeli prime minister, widely praised by President Bill Clinton and others as a great peacemaker.)

Arafat finally agreed to have the four PFLP militants implicated in the assassination jailed in return for the Israelis lifting the siege, along with Ahmed Saadat -- Mustafa's successor as PFLP leader -- even though the Palestinian judiciary cleared him of involvement.

Arafat was also forced to agree to imprison a sixth man, Palestinian Authority finance chief Fuad Shubaki, for attempting to smuggle arms from Iran. The U.S. position has been that while it is legitimate for the United States to send arms to the Israeli government to facilitate their occupation of Palestinian territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war, it is illegitimate for the Palestinians to import arms to resist the occupation.

Though the Bush administration had rejected calls from the Palestinians to dispatch U.S. peacekeeping forces to the West Bank to separate the two sides and protect civilian populations, President Bush--not trusting the Palestinian Authority to keep the six men incarcerated--insisted that American servicemen, later joined by British servicemen, be sent into the West Bank city of Jericho to help guard the prisoners.

While U.S. and British officials had complained in recent weeks of a deteriorating security climate, they did not give Palestinian officials any notice of their sudden departure on March 14. They did, however, apparently inform Israeli officials. Though there was no evidence to suggest that the departure of the foreign prison guards would lead to an imminent release of the six men, Israeli forces moved into Jericho and assaulted the prison, killing two guards and wounding two dozen others, kidnapping the six prisoners and bringing them to Israel.

The widespread Palestinian anger in response to the Israeli attack and kidnappings went well beyond those who support the PFLP's ideology or its retaliatory assassination of Zeevi. This latest violation of Palestine's limited sovereignty, with the apparent collusion of the United States--the supposed guarantor of the Oslo peace process and the detention agreement--and Great Britain deepens the sense of humiliation from the nearly 29 years of U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of the West Bank. It has weakened moderate Palestinian leaders like President Mahmoud Abbas, who has argued that the U.S.-brokered peace process offers hope for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, while strengthening Hamas and other extremists who reject the peace process and Israel's very right to exist.

-Stephen Zunes is the Middle East editor of Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) where this article first appeared. He is a professor of Politics and is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003.) © Foreign Policy in Focus

Manifestation a Beit Sira/ Protest in Beit Sira

Vendredi 17 Mars 2006.
Beit Sira, un village pres de Bilin a aussi commence a organiser des manifestations contre le Mur tous les Vendredis.


Friday 17 March 2006,
Beit Sira, a village near Bilin has also started a weekly demonstration against the construction of the Wall.

manifestation a Beit Sira/ Demonstration in Beit Sira

article Israel's attack on Jericho

Israel's attack on Jericho: Palestinians remain without protection
Ali Abunimah and Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada, 15 March 2006


Palestinians protesting in Hebron against the Israeli attack on Jericho aimed to arrest or kill PFLP-leader Ahmed Saadat who has been held in jail under British and American supervision ever since March 14, 2006. (MaanImages/Mamoun Wazwaz)

The Israeli attack on Jericho and kidnap of a number of Palestinian prisoners, including the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) demonstrates once again the fiction that there is a functioning Palestinian "government" in the occupied territories. The ease and impunity with which the occupation forces attack Palestinians everywhere serves to remind us that these territories remain today, as they have been since 1967, under full Israeli military dictatorship. It is a mistake to keep referring to a "Palestinian government," because this gives the false impression that Palestinians under occupation are in control of their destiny. Palestinian factions may, in the wake of the January elections, be negotiating to form a "government," but this does not mean that this "government" can exercise any control or protect Palestinians from the ravages of the occupying power.

The media coverage we have seen of the events in Jericho, especially the BBC, has been appallingly shallow and misleading. Let us remember why Ahmad Sa'adat and other prisoners in the Jericho jail were wanted by the occupation authorities. Sa'adat is accused of killing Rehavam Ze'evi, the founder of the Moledet Party and an Israeli cabinet minister. The missing contextual facts are that the PFLP killed Ze'evi in retaliation for Israel's murder of its leader Abu Ali Mustafa (Mustafa al-Zibri) in August 2001. Al-Zibri was not carrying arms or fighting, but sitting at his desk when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired a missile at him blowing him to pieces. Ze'evi was the leading advocate in Israel for the destruction of the Palestinian people, calling for their wholesale expulsion. The party he founded is running on the same platform in the current Israeli election campaign as anyone can read on its website.

In the present atmosphere, we are being told that Hamas, which has maintained a truce for more than 12 months, and which has declared its willingness to come to terms with an Israel that withdraws to the 1967 border, is beyond the pale for Europeans and Americans to talk to until it "recognizes Israel" and "renounces violence." Why were such conditions never imposed on Israel? How is it that a proud, boastful ethnic cleanser like Ze'evi could sit in the Israeli cabinet with Ariel Sharon and Nobel Prize winner Shimon Peres for years and not one of those Western officials who today threaten the Palestinians with an end to all aid for electing Hamas uttered not one single word? Why is it acceptable for the US Congress to hand over billions of dollars to an Israel whose government ministers advocate ethnic cleansing? How is it that instead of demanding the arrest of the murderers of Abu Ali Mustafa and thousands of other Palestinians, Britain and the US collude with Israel to commit new crimes under international law?

Ahmad Sa'adat was arrested on 15 January 2002 by the Palestinian General Intelligence Service. He was being held at the PA's headquarters in Ramallah. In May 2002, Sa'adat and six other detainees were transferred to Jericho as part of the U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that ended a 34-day Israeli military siege on Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. A force of US and British guards would oversee their captivity. Their role was simply to monitor the terms of the Ramallah agreement to report any non-compliance. The Ramallah Agreement states that any changes in the status of the detainees should be agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Unlawful apprehension of a suspect by state agents, including US and British security agents acting in the territory of another state is not a bar to the excercise of jurisdiction. Such apprehension would, of course, constitute a breach of international law and the norm of non-intervention.

Sa‘adat was never formally charged with any recognizable criminal offence or brought before a judge. The Palestinian High Court of Justice in Gaza requested the PA to bring evidence against him, but it failed to do so. On June 3, 2002, the High Court ordered the immediate release of Sa'adat. The next day, the PA decided that Sa'adat should not be released "due to Israeli threats of assassinating Sa‘adat as there was an overt announcement of that by Sharon’s spokesman". A few months later, Israeli armed forces killed Sa'adat brothers at his family home in Ramallah. Israeli soldiers went to Mohammed Sa'adat's home, opened fire and killed him.

While there is silence about the attacks in Jericho, there is also silence and inaction as Israel announced that Ariel, a huge colony in the heart of the West Bank, is to be annexed, and Israel began building a new occupation forces "police station" east of Jerusalem, the first step in massively expanding the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Israel, as we have seen once again, is a rogue state which acts not only with impunity but with the active support of western powers who promise to starve its victims while quaking in fear at uttering a single word of criticism. The only path for those who reject violence is to work to comprehensively isolate this wild regime as the South African apartheid regime was in its time isolated.

Ali Abunimah and Arjan El Fassed are co-founders of the Electronic Intifada.

obsedee par les news?/ obsessed by the news?

14 Mars 2006,
les etudiants de Birzeit manifestent contre l'attaque d'une prison palestinienne a Jericho par les forces israeliennes afin d'arreter le leader de PFLP, Saadat.
Les cours ont ete annules, une television a ete branchee dans la cafeteria. une nouvelle fois l actualite nous rattrappe. Un nouveau checkpoint a ete mis entre l universite et Ramallah. cette provocation va peut etre la goutte d eau qui va faire deborder le vase.
Il y a deja des manifestations a Ramallah.



The students from Birzeit were really quick to start demonstrate against the Israeli attack on a Palestinian prison in Jericho to arrest Saadat, the leader of PLFP. All the lectures have been cancelled. A television has been put at the cafeteria. A checkpoint has been put at Surda, between the university and Ramallah. Everybody is waiting to see what will happen but if Sadaat is arrested or even worse killed, then you can expect a lot of trouble for sure

obsedee par les nouvelles?

Texte ci dessous ecrit il y a deux semaines, depuis les choses ne se sont pas arrangees.



Lors de mes jour nées de travail, je ne peux m’empêcher de scruter sans cesse les nouvelles. Tout commence le matin au réveil ;j’ouvre CNN toujours en me demandant s’ils ne vont pas annoncer un attentat-suicide, synonyme pour les Palestiniens
de mesures de punitions collectives instantanées, et cela peut impliquer de nouveaux
checkpoints sur mon chemin du travail, ou une invasion militaire (il y a deux semaines, j’ai ainsi appris par CNN que les soldats israéliens étaient rentrés
dans Ramallah pour arrêter un militant). Ensuite, dès mon arrivée à mon bureau, j’ouvre Internet pour vérifier les dernières nouvelles en Palestine .Je commence
par Haaretz (www.haa-retz.com),un journal israélien en anglais qui a le courage de présenter différentes opinions, puis j’ouvre deux sites indépendants palestiniens d’information, aussi en anglais, qui ont une excellente couverture de tout ce
qui se passe en Cisjordanie et dans la bande de Gaza :Maan News (http://www .maannews.net/en/) et International Middle East Media Center (http://www. imemc.org).Heure après heure, voire minute après minute,je peux suivre ainsi tout ce qui se passe. Quelquefois,j’en deviens obsédée, voire malade.
Cette succession me donne la nausée.
Je communique de temps en temps les nouvelles à mes collègues qui généalement ne lèvent pas le nez de leur ordinateur, puisque tous les jours les mêmes nouvelles se succèdent. Pourtant,depuis la cérémonie d’ouverture du nouveau Parlement, le 18 février,les nouvelles sont assez alarmantes et on peut constater une escalade. Tout d’abord, les obstacles à la liberté de circulation ont été renforcés, avec la mise en place de nouveaux checkpoints. Tout voyage, notamment à Ramallah et dans le nord de la Cisjordanie, prend des heures .Les humiliations sont nombreuses . Des soldats ont tiré sur deux jeunes Palestiniens qui sont intervenus quand les soldats ont demandé à une femme palestinienne de se déshabiller. Gaza reste toujours fermée et, en signe de protestation, les agriculteurs ont jeté des tonnes de nourritures qui ne peuvent être exportées .Les assassinats ciblés contre les militants ont repris de plus belle .Ces exécutions extrajudiciaires sont con traires au droit inte national, et vont provoquer inévitablement la riposte des groupes armés. Les jeunes et les enf ants palestiniens ont été aussi par ticulièrement frappés .Le 22 février, un enfant de 4 ans a été sérieusement blessé à Gaza au visage et sur son corps par un explosif israélien. Le camp de réfugiés à Balata a été envahi pendant cinq jours .Lors de l’invasion, l’école des filles a été utilisée comme installation militaire et comme centre d’interrogation. Lors d’un retrait temporaire,les Palestiniens sont rentrés et ont découvert les murs remplis de graffitis insultants, et des ordinateurs ont été
détruits. Lors de l’invasion, sept Palestiniens ont été tués , dont deux adolescents; il y a eu aussi des dizaines blessés , dont des membres de la Croix-Rouge et un cameraman. Les ambulances ont été empêchées d’entrer dans le camp pour secourir les blessés. Une maison a été démolie. Une fois que les troupes se sont retirées du camp, j’ai voulu par moi-même aller constater les dégâts .Le cimetière de Balata était encore rempli. Des enfants m’ont montré les tombes; ils connaissaient tous les emplacements, les noms et les circonstances de la mort
de chacun. Cela en dit beaucoup sur leur état d’esprit. Le ministre palestinien a lancé un appel à la communauté internationale et dénoncé que, lors des cinq derniers jours ,15 Palestiniens avaient été tués et 70 blessés.

Ainsi va la vie en Palestine . Les nouvelles se succèdent et elles sont rarement encourageantes. Sur le terrain, la frustration grandit .Il est à prévoir que le gouvernement israélien va encore durcir ses positions avant les élections israéliennes de fin mars et v a chercher à déstabiliser et provoquer le Hamas.

Je vous laisse...je dois vérifier les derniers nouvelles.

too used to death

On Haaretz, 14 March 2006

Too used to death

By Yona Bargur

Raad al-Batash, 8, Mahmoud al-Batash, 15, and a third boy, Ahmed a-Susi, were killed in an air force strike in the Gaza Strip on March 6 that had targeted two wanted Islamic Jihad members. The mother of one of the boys and another seven passers-by were injured in the attack.

My outcry is not directed at the commander of the air force, or the chief of staff, or even the defense minister, and certainly not the acting prime minister - all of them proponents of the targeting killings, which frequently go somewhat astray and hit innocent Palestinian passers-by. And thereafter, they softly utter an apology in the name of the surprise that the residents dared to walk around their neighborhoods and go shopping there.

My outcry is directed at my people, parents, sons and daughters, to the leaders of the parties - and also to the leaders of the Zionist left-wing - who are not pained by the pointless killing (as if there were purposeful killing) of boys and girls, in whose eyes fear is visible and for whom the alternative to the hell and killing and roadblocks is "Paradise Now."




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Our political agenda should have changed, but talented journalists are investing their time and energy in uncovering new-old nests of corruption, and politicians and MKs are busy investigating the bandage on MK Effi Eitam's head and the cast on the arm of MK Aryeh Eldad. Dead children do not even make them blink before the television cameras. The demand to raise the minimum wage is a just and fitting demand, but inferior in comparison to the lives of children in Gaza that have been cut short. And even the announcement of so worthy and just an organization as Peace Now, to mark one year since the release of Attorney Talia Sassoon's report on illegal outposts, should have made way for an obituary for the children killed during IDF operations over the last few months.

Even the man who maintains we should be "strong against Hamas" should be able to find a little compassion in his heart for the children whose lives hang by a thread, or more accurately, by a shell fragment or by the gun sights of IDF snipers - for example, Udai Tantawi, 13, who was killed in the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, and Mundal Abu Alia, 13, who was killed near his village adjacent to Ramallah, on the way to Kokhav Hashahar.

And do not say it is a necessary thing that can be denounced, for the sake of the state's security and for the sake of preserving the lives of our own children. There is no necessity to kill the enemy's children in order to save our own children. There is no atonement and forgiveness granted because it is claimed that there was no intent - this, in contrast to their despicable terrorism. Our right to defend ourselves does not give us the right to take actions that do not meet the test of human and Jewish morality.

My outcry is that of a father trying to survive the last 10 years, since the fall of our son, and who does not find respite and does not find tranquillity in revenge operations, and cannot live in an environment that sanctifies killing and more killing, ours and theirs.

My outcry is not even a form of protest: it comes to tell the Jewish people how saddened I am to be part of the national killing machine; how much it hurts me to live with absence of my son and the presence of continued mutual bloodshed; how much I am not afraid to shed tears over the loss of children whose only sin is that they were from the second or third generation of a people that lives under continued occupation, without any hope of change; how disappointed I am with all of us, who are not climbing over the barricades in order to act as human shields for the children of Gaza, Nablus and Al-Bureij.

Cry beloved country for your fallen sons and for your people who have become used to death, and accept with equanimity the death of Raad al-Batash and Mahmoud al-Batash and other boys and girls under the age of 19, over 700 of their and our children, who were killed in the past five years.

The author is the father of Ziv, of blessed memory, and a member of the Bereaved Families Forum for Peace, Reconciliation and Tolerance