Mr. ‘J’ remembers the dark day in May, 2007 when dozens of Israeli Army troops, accompanied by a helicopter and bulldozers, destroyed his modest 720 squar-foot home where he lived with his wife and five children.
The military blocked off the surrounding community while the bulldozers did their work. Mr. ‘J’ works as a laborer and also helps tend the crops on his family’s land. Surrounding the house are fields of ingeniously cultivated and well-pruned grape vines with tomatoes, legumes, and cucumbers growing underneath in the partial shade. Mr. ‘J’ is part of a large clan that used to own hundreds of Dunams (1 dunam=1/4 acre) and have slowly lost most of the land due to Israeli confiscations and settlement building. The largest Israeli settlement in the Hebron area is Kyriat Arba, much of it built on the family’s land.
“People can live together if the confiscations stop and settlement expansion ceases”, says Mr. ‘J’.
The demolished home of the J family
A nearly finished interior door frame
The new house is ready for the roof to be installed
The exterior of The J family’s new home
