Thursday, November 8, 2007

Bedouin widow and 5 children remain homeless after Israel destroys home

Ruins of the family's home (Photo: Suliman Abu, the Council for Unrecognized Villages)

As DesertPeace says in her take on this, "ILLEGAL OCCUPIERS DEMOLISH ILLEGAL HOME IN PALESTINE." And, the world stands by in silence because Israel is a Jewish state. All I can say is, GOD don't like ugly. And, He is Just!

by Yonat Atlas - Nov 8, 2007

The Negev's Local Council of Unrecognized Bedouin Villages is planning to rebuild the home of a widow, mother of five children, which was destroyed on Wednesday by the Israel Lands Authority.

Three illegally constructed homes were destroyed yesterday in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Bir al-Hamam, near Tel Sheva and Nebatim.

Demolition crews were accompanied by large police forces, and destroyed, among others, the home of a widow, a mother of five children aged 8 – 14. During the destruction of the house the mother fainted a number of times, and her eight-year daughter lay on the ground crying, and asked: "Mom, why are they destroying the house?"

Afterwards the mother took hold of a gas balloon and asked to end her life, as well as those of her children, but village residents succeeded in dissuading her and managed to calm her down.

The Chairman of the Council of Unrecognized Villages, Hussein al-Rafiya, has decided to set up a protest tent near the site of the destroyed home, and to remain in it until a new structure is built.

Speaking to Ynet, a shocked and saddened mother said: "I tried to make progress and advance my children, but the state failed me. Every penny I saved I built this home with so that there will be a roof for the children. A democratic state can't treat its citizens like this. We live here without electricity, even the chickens in the neighboring Jewish villages have electricity in the barns. So what should we think? I feel that the government doesn't want to make progress in negotiations with us, and I don't know what I'll do now."

Hussein al-Rafiya told Ynet: "We are planning to rebuild the home that was destroyed. All of the men of the village will come to help and we won't leave her without a roof." He added that he felt a stirring up among young Bedouin men. "Something is going to explode. I don't know what will happen exactly, but something not good will happen in the unrecognized villages."

The Interior Ministry said in a response yesterday that the National Monitoring Unit for Southern Construction destroyed the homes in cooperation with the police in accordance with an administrative demolishment decree placed against illegal construction. The structures were built on agricultural lands and the demolishing is part of the monitoring activities of the Southern District for Locating Illegal Construction.

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