Al-Awda New York , The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

NEIGHBORHOOD DESTRUCTION IN PALESTINE

By Samia A. Halaby

A photo essay documenting an inspection tour June 29-30 and July 1, 2001. The team was composed of one member of the New York branch of Al-Awda (Palestine Right to Return Coalition) and one from Idust Foundation in Colorado, one from Laka Foundation in Amsterdam. They worked in cooperation with the Union of Health Work Committees in the West Bank and Ghazze (Gaza). The author, and organizer of the team, is a Palestinian activist born in AlQuds (Jerusalem) prior to the establishment of Israel on Palestinian soil.

Part Five -- Rafah, A city in Ghazze on the Egyptian Border

Our team arrived at Salah al-Dean Gate which is the southernmost part of Ghazze bordering Egypt. We faced the border from a distance of 50 to 70 meters of total destruction. Three to four rows of homes had been turned into rubble. People living in the area tell us that this destruction continues the entire length of the border of Rafah with Egypt.

We saw what looked like tank rounds and thousands of craters. We look across the band of destruction at the Israeli military building on the border from where shelling and shooting originates. They have no damage or destruction and no craters from shells. They are safe and under no threat yet they continue their attack on this densely populated residential neighborhood.

The shops and houses which front this scene of total destruction are severely damaged and unsafe both structurally and because the shooting continues nightly. People come during the daytime and stay in their damaged homes in disbelief or to relieve their hosts. A young boy guides us through the narrow streets and people gather about us wanting to know what we are doing and wanting to tell us of their tragedies. A child brings us a handful of shrapnel. There is a man crazed with tragedy who runs back and forth and runs after us. He helped us to find the owners who would unlock homes for us to examine. His own home was hit by two missiles and damaged. He is terrified that there might be radiation.

A child stands in the ruins of his home and makes the victory sign symbolizing Palestinian determination to remain in Palestine.

This neighborhood of Rafah is not a refugee camp. It is, however, a poor working class neighborhood. The people gather around us in the side streets and tell us that their men mostly work for Israelis in agriculture and in building and anything else they can get. They said that they are mostly unemployed now because they cannot go into Israel not even for medical reasons. They are imprisoned in Ghazze and under attack by the Israeli military behind which stands the might of the US economy and government.

The cruel military outpost appears in the photo above and we see it again through a hole in someone's home in the photo below. Between us and the outpost are meters and meters of demolished homes. The town of Rafah stradles the border and thus half is in Egypt and the other half is in Ghazze. The population is therefore divided. The two halves traditionally stand on either side of the border fence and exchange family news and visit. Now the distance in between the two is a dangerous swath of rubble where Israelis shoot at will and kill. While we examining these sites we heard the Israelis begin talking on loud speakers. Their voices were electronically expanded and sounded hostile and agitated.

Since January 2001, the Israeli government errected one hundred new military posts. Thousands of trees have been uprooted (over 8,100 in October 2001). Settlers have poisoned and destroyed agricultural land in the area of Toubas. Water reservoirs and pipe systems were destroyed by bulldozers. Ninety-two schools have been completely closed. Several schools were shot at or raided. Obviously, Israelis are not fighting terrorism they are committing it.