Today at the building site near the Apartheid Wall, the floor tiling is now nearly complete. Much of the outside plastering has been finished, and work to waterproof the roof is well underway. The international chain gang system was put to good use, with several buckets of sand, gravel, sand and more gravel, being passed from an ever dwindling pile into the house that is slowly becoming a new home. We are well on schedule to hand over the keys in 3 days time.
This progress is of course down to the hard work of the local Palestinian builders who have worked long days, hours after the ICAHD volunteers end their working day. Just like us they need water and hot tea and the occasional ice cream to boost their energy. They are so good-natured; they are grateful for our presence and they ensure we mix the cement so that it is fit for purpose.
Their craftsmen carry out skilled work we volunteers of course don’t have the skills or knowledge to do, but as a team we are achieving the completion of another physical expression of our rejection of this morally repugnant and inhumane subjugation of the Palestinian people by a Zionist-driven Government that scoffs at international law and international humanitarian law in the ideological pursuit of ethnically cleansing ‘Greater’ Jerusalem.
What was encouraging and interesting for us all at the building site was the welcome presence of international media. There were four different media groups; these included two television film crews, a radio journalist from Australia and France. There was also the curious presence of the Jerusalem Post free-lancer who was trying to pull together a story for Jerusalem Post online, which compares us to the settlers, his question to Lucy was ‘ironically, many people compare what you are doing with the settlers actions’ in relation to both groups building houses and condemning each others actions.
Lucy replied emphatically that, in her opinion, there was no comparison whatsoever. This, Lucy explained was because settlers force Palestinians off their own land for which they have worked hard for, can prove legal ownership of, may have raised many generations of their family in, and have lived in for many years before the settlers first arrived. The settlers are often given houses very easily, for which they have subsidized taxes, a better supply of water and electricity and protection from the Israeli Army and Police.
Other ICAHD participants also emphasized to the Australian and French journalists that they were disappointed at their own national governments for doing so little to oblige Israel to carry out its obligations that it signed up to in enabling the Palestinians to build a Nation State. Every time the Israeli Army and MagAv (the Israeli border guards) harass, intimidate, and subjugate Palestinian men, women and children, they erode any hopes for peace.
In the evening, the highly respected professor Ilan Pappe gave a conference in Anata’s Town Hall to a large audience of not only ICAHD, but other interested parties on the subject of the roots and future direction of conflict in Israel. His talk was very insightful, useful and thought provoking, especially for a newcomer to the issue.
