CPTnet
January 30, 2004
NABLUS: More than just a number

by Maureen Jack

Recently I heard Jeff Halper, of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions, say that four thousand houses had been demolished during the
current intifada. I have seen one more added to that number. On January
22, Diane Janzen, Jerry Levin, Barb Martens and I witnessed a house
demolition in Nablus.

All day the Israeli military had been operating in the area, searching homes
and buildings for men on their wanted list. They went to a mosque in the
early morning, and would not allow men, women and children praying there
there to
leave. Children were not allowed to leave nearby schools. Some families
had to leave their homes, and people coming home from work were not allowed
into their houses. Other families were prevented from leaving their homes.

A bulldozer took off the front of one building. It was clear what was going
to happen. But no one knew exactly when.

We saw six military vehicles in the one street; they prevented access.
Ambulances were as near as they could get. Young paramedical volunteers,
their fluorescent Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committee tabards
gleaming in the dark, were massing at the bottom of the street. An Israeli
soldier told us that there would be an explosion in two minutes.

The explosion was shocking in its intensity. Clouds of debris rose up into
the evening sky. Suddenly all was movement. The military vehicles sped
away from the site as the ambulances and
volunteers rushed towards it. We ran with them, almost involuntarily and
paused when our eyes filled with grit from the explosion. But the young
paramedics did not break stride.

As we ran up, we encountered people fleeing down the hill, escaping from
nearby houses where the blast had blown out the windows. They were crying
and screaming; some were hysterical. Children clung to their mothers;
mothers clung to their children. Fear gave way to pain in most eyes, anger
in some. At the same time a crowd of men ran down the street, shouting
triumphantly, 'Allahu Akhbar!' (God is great.) We were told that a wanted
man escaped with them.

As we stood and watched, our eyes filled again, but this time with tears at
the wanton destruction. I wept and swore in sorrow and anger. In their
distress, one man and one woman gestured angrily at us, clearly outsiders,
but their friends pulled them away.

Six families, thirty people, were made homeless at a stroke, all their
possessions destroyed or buried under the rubble that had been their homes.
No one died, and there were no serious physical injuries. But these
people's lives will never be the same. They will never forget this night.
Nor will I. To me, four thousand and one is more than just a number.

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