As its name suggests, Beit Arabiya belongs to Arabiya Shawamreh, her husband Salim, and their seven children — a Palestinian family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD’s Palestinian, Israeli, and international peace activists before being demolished again last night.

At around 11p.m. Monday, a bulldozer accompanied by a contingent of heavily armed Israeli soldiers appeared on the Anata hills to promptly demolish Beit Arabiya, along with residential and agricultural structures in the nearby Jahalin Bedouin compound. Three family homes were demolished along with numerous animal pens; 20 people including young children were displaced, left exposed to the harsh desert environment. While standing in solidarity with Palestinians, ICAHD staff and activists were repeatedly threatened by Israeli soldiers. ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain was beaten and sustained minor injuries.

Beit Arabiya was issued a demolition order by Israeli authorities back in 1994, following Israel’s refusal to grant a building permit. It has since been demolished four times and rebuilt by ICAHD activists four times. Last night’s fifth demolition came following a reissue of the demolition order last Thursday. ICAHD Director Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. “We shall rebuild, we must rebuild as an act of political defiance of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians,” said Halper.

Beit Arabiya has become a symbol of resistance to the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank and Israeli demolition policy. “ICAHD is as determined as always to rebuild [Beit Arabiya] and [persevere] in its struggle to bring about justice and peace,” added Halper.
Salim and Arabiya, along with their neighbors and friends, stood last night and watched as this tragedy unfolded once again. Arabiya and Salim have dedicated their home as a center for peace in memory of Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan, two women (an American and a Palestinian) who died resisting home demolitions in Gaza. In the past decade ICAHD has hosted numerous visitors at Beit Arabiya and based its annual rebuilding camp at the house, rebuilding 185 demolished Palestinian homes.

Earlier this month, ICAHD extended an invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing to visit Beit Arabiya during her country visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory scheduled for later in the month. “It is our hope that while we cannot extend the same hospitality to the Special Raportueor, Prof. Raquel Rolnik will visit the ruins of Beit Arabiya and report on the utter cruelty and illegality of Israeli policies and practices, and that members of the international community will follow in her footsteps,” said ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain.

For more information and coordination of visits to Beit Arabiya, please contact Itay Epshtain at itay@icahd.org or +972-54-2623306

Slider Photo Credit: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/MCC

After the excitement of the South Hebron Hills, it was nice to return to Beit Arabiya and both of our work sites in Anata. We began the day with a lecture on the economy of the occupation from Shir, of the Alternative Information Center. We talked extensively about the Global BDS campaign (Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions), with plenty of questions and disagreements about its potential. That night, representatives from the Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance Movement came to talk about the demonstrations in Bil’in, as well as demolitions and water inequality in the Jordan Valley.

We devoted the rest of the day to the work sites, and are making excellent progress, working right on schedule, and the group is feeling quite optimistic.

Anxela, form Spain, and the coordinator of this year’s summer camp, says that she feels happy about the camp’s progress. “I think we have a great group, and people are working very hard. We have also encountered a lot of good experiences to help us understand the situation here.”

Cody, from America, and the construction coordinator, agrees. “The camaraderie and the spirit of the camp and the construction site is amazing. It’s a testament to what can happen when we all work hard together.”

Arzu, from Turkey, is “impressed because everyone really is putting a lot of effort into the construction. I didn’t expect this kind of dedication.”

Hara, from Greece, says that the collaboration between the international participants and the Palestinians is her motivation for working hard. “We have a nice mix between the families of the homes and the volunteers. When I see the families sweating alongside me, I want to keep working, instead of stopping for a cigarette.”

Saleem, who has welcomed the participants into the home of him and his wife Arabiya, says that this year’s camp is “…fantastic! Our volunteers are cooperating very well. The languages are not the same, but through signs we can understand each other. The feeling is very good because of our progress on the houses.”

Up at 6am after quite a restless night (alarms going off, people talking in their sleep, snoring, fans rotating loudly – all things to be expected in a room of 40 people…), coffee at cafe Salim (the little corner to the right of the house just inside the gate), filling our bellies (when we thought we could eat no more after three huge meals a day for the last week) with egg and falafels and other such wholesome food and off to work around 9am. We spent the morning on site – I’m with the group working at the house of Abu Hussein, whose son was at the house today helping to co-ordinate the building work. When he’s not at the house, he’s working at Modi’in, one of the biggest settlements in the West Bank (on the green line) between Ramallah and Tel Aviv, building the new settlements which Israel agreed to stop expanding at Annapolis. With a heart-breaking sense of resignation and helplessness, he told me “We build their settlements while they destroy our houses…” The irony of the situation is what is so devastating. So many Palestinians are forced into taking work not only on the settlements but also on the wall – they are themselves helping to build their own walled prison. It’s impossible to imagine that people would do this but the economy leaves many with little choice. The Israeli government has closed Palestinian banks, shops and much else besides. Since the early 1990’s Israel also closed its borders to the 150,000 Palestinians that used to come each day to work in Israel.

On top of this, inside the Occupied Territories there are the checkpoints, the road closures and the settler-only roads which make it extremely difficult for Palestinians to get from one place to another in the West Bank, making trade virtually impossible. As a result, 70% of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories now live on less than 2 euros a day and most rely on humanitarian aid to survive. They work on settlements and the apartheid wall when work comes along – which is frequent and overlooked by the Israelis despite it being illegal because it’s cheap labour, and it is often taken by Palestinians needing to feed their families and to survive. There are Palestinians who don’t share this view. I spoke to a man in Sucia, a village in the surrounding region of Hebron, who was strongly against Palestinians working on the wall – “People should find other work in Israel if they need to, any work but the wall… Will we be able to enter Israel to even work after the wall is finished?”

We didn’t build in the afternoon on Thursday – instead we went to Ramallah to visit Yasser Arafat’s tomb and hear a presentation by a representative of the PLO – the Palestine Liberation Organisation. As well we were able to spend some time downtown Ramallah, the economic capital of the West Bank. It’s a buzzing place, so vibrant and full of energy, colourfulness and delicious smells. There are people and cars everywhere, kebabs and falafels, street vendors, children, bright lights and even a couple of ‘Stars and Bucks’ as a familiar reminder of home…

The presentation was held at the Quaker Peace Centre. The Quakers have been in Palestine since the 1850’s. In 1869 they established the Friends’ Girls School, which continues today as a co-ed school for Palestinian boys and girls. This center, built in 1910, alongside a place of worship and a youth group, is also a meeting place for people coming to learn more about human rights issues and life under the Occupation. The PLO representative shared some of the key facts on the ground from past to present, from the UN partition plan in 1947 through to the on-going siege of Gaza.

Some of the figures pre- (between Dec 06 and Nov 07) and post- (Dec 07-Nov 08) Annapolis (the Bush-Olmert-Abbas negotiations – the first in seven years – held in 2007) were astounding:

• 137 settlements had been tendered pre-Annapolis. Despite an agreement that settlement expansion would freeze, 2,300 settlements have since been tendered.
• Pre-Annapolis 704 Palestinian building permits had been blocked. Since, 1926 have been refused.
• Pre-Annapolis there were 563 road closures (roadblocks, checkpoints etc). Since there have been 630.

Given these statistics it’s hardly surprising that they believe Israel is showing its lack of seriousness about reaching a peaceful resolution and that Israeli attempts to isolate Gaza and fragment the West Bank are seriously threatening any possibility of a Palestinian state and a peaceful end to this horrendous conflict.

Back to Beit Arabiya and to the 65 or so other people who share the camp, the house, the building work, the five showers, the food, the washing and pretty much everything else. We have become a big family this past week.

Summer Camp 2009: Dreams & Reality

On the second day of the building camp, work continued as usual, sandwiched by a nonviolence training by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and a presentation on the history of Beit Arabiya from Saleem and Jeff.

Controversy erupted, however, over the presence of Anata children at the building site. Throughout the construction of both houses, young boys were close by, either assisting with work, interacting with international participants, standing back and watching, or in one case, throwing rocks at nearby soldiers, guarding construction of the Israeli “separation barrier.” The soldiers fired back teargas, and then observed the building camp atop a nearby hill for the following three hours.

This incident in particular brought up discussion in the group, over whether children should be allowed on the site. Participants had felt anxious about the soldiers, said one participant from California. They worried that these boys’ form of resistance to the occupation, regardless of its legitimacy, could impede ICAHD’s form of resistance.

Summer Camp 2009: Dreams & Reality

Participants who had not even witnessed the rock-throwing were concerned about the safety of kids helping on the work site, because small children have taken the initiative to carry heavy materials without much supervision. The children might also distract participants from their own work. One participant from Turkey disagreed, seeing the boys as curious and polite, and enjoying their company.

The group concluded that the best solution was to involve the Anata community. Salim Shawamreh spoke with families in the area, explaining ICAHD’s form of resistance and recommending supervision of the kids. Some participants also bought paper and crayons to engage the children while participants worked.

Even with small disagreements, building has continued on schedule, and the houses are looking promising!

Each day, a different participant will post a piece of writing to the website, describing their perspective on the day. Today’s entry was written by a volunteer from Spain.

4:30 AM: During my sleep, something sounded new, blended with my dreams but still stuck in reality. The sound soon became recognizable as praying, sounding from a nearby mosque. Small time spaces between each phrase made it a conversation that had suddenly erupted. Although reality had already replaced dreaming, it wasn’t clear yet which one was better: If I was still dreaming, I would be distracted from the terrible situation faced by this place and its people. Yet the prayers were real, but still magical, recognized by me, neither a Muslim nor Arabic-speaker, as a statement of hope and a pursuit for peace, shared between us (The ICAHD group) and everyone living here in Anata.

During the day, I experienced in practical terms what I had heard at night. Walking through Anata (and its destroyed houses and streets filled with what no being should even have to deal with) it was clear to me that we are expected here, respected here and above all, given as much as possible here.

That made me wonder whether we, as Westerners, have given as little as a thought toward these families and their children, that play with handmade toys and ride broken bicycles, with the same joy that they use to welcome us in here, using big smiles, strong handshakes, and spontaneous football games. Yes, even with their rotten bikes these children smile!

It was this hope, and this feeling of homecoming, that started my day and reassured me that yes, these people deserve it, yes, hope exists, and yes, I am here!

* Some camp volunteers prefer to write anonymously to avoid potential problems with Israeli authorities during their time in Israel/Palestine.