Every year hundreds of Palestinians are forced from their homes, homes built on land they own. Since 1967 Israel has demolished more than 25,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
ICAHD rebuilds homes as an act of defiance, creating alternative facts on the ground. Israel’s policy of house demolitions and evictions is illegal under international law and is politically motivated; its purpose is to disenfranchise entire Palestinian communities and expropriate their land.
In the summer of 2011 (July 10-25, 2011), ICAHD will once again rebuild a Palestinian home. The Abu Omar family home, built in 1990 on privately owned land, was demolished by the Israeli military in 2005. Ahmed Abu Omar (46) had applied for a building permit, but was refused on the grounds that his land was zoned as an “agricultural area.” This is a story we hear often, and it reflects Israel’s long-time, unlawful policy of curtailing all construction by Palestinians since 1967.
With a growing family, the Abu Omars had little choice but to build anyway. In 2003 they received notification that, according to the Israeli authorities, the house was built illegally, and in March 2005 a demolition order was posted on their door. One month later the family home was demolished, within a matter of hours, by Israeli bulldozers. They were offered neither alternative housing nor compensation for the demolition, violating international humanitarian law. The Abu Omars would have been left without shelter if it were not for the kindness of a neighbor who provided a small house, and the commitment of ICAHD which built a small, temporary shelter. Ahmed described the effect on the family of losing their home as “dying every day.”
Abu Omar family home before and after demolition
ICAHD, in consultation with the local community council, has decided to rebuild the Abu Omar home at their request. You can imagine how delighted and enthusiastic the family is at the prospect of having a home of their own again. Their courage to defy the Israeli Occupation’s atrocious practice of demolition, forced eviction, and land expropriation is an inspiration to us all.
Annually since 2003, ICAHD has made it possible for internationals and Israelis to join together with Palestinians in the West Bank town of Anata to defy the Occupation and rebuild the demolished homes of Palestinian families.
Within two weeks we rebuild an entire home, from foundation to roof, and in the process reorganize relationships on the ground. We send a message to the world: We refuse to be enemies; together we resist the occupation. At the end of the camp, international participants return home as advocates for peace, carrying ICAHD’s vision of what a just and sustainable resolution might look like.
