wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Rebuilding a house and building a common future

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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
For immediate release - 07/10/2004

 REBUILDING A HOUSE AND BUILDING A COMMON FUTURE

			 By Martin Smedjeback (*)

					 Free photos available  see below.

Young and old came from different parts of the world to the small village
of Anata to rebuild a demolished Palestinian house together with Israelis
and Palestinians. They wanted to provide a home for 23 people, but there
was also a larger motivating factor.  Building the house was also an act of
resistance to the Occupation.

After being displaced from their land in the Negev desert, the Kabuah
family came to the Anata village on the outskirts of Jerusalem in 1980.
They bought a piece of land and started to build a house, which was
completed in 1998. For years, they had unsuccessfully tried to get a permit
to build the house. In June 2004, it was demolished by the Israeli
authorities, leaving the Kabuah family of 23 people homeless.

Sadly, the Kabuah family is not alone in facing this situation. According
to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), since 1967
Israel has demolished almost 9,000 Palestinian homes, leaving approximately
50,000 people without shelter and traumatized.

The homes that are destroyed do not belong only to suicide bombers or their
families.  According to ICAHD, the large majority of the houses are
demolished simply because they lack a building permit. Palestinians build
without permits because it is virtually impossible for them to get this
permission, either within Israel or in the Occupied Territories.  The
motivation for demolishing Palestinian homes is purely political, although
elaborate systems of planning regulations, laws, and procedures are
employed to give it legal justification, says Lucia Pizarro, international
coordinator of ICAHD.

A demolition order is typically stuck on a house, which could result in its
destruction the very next day. Since so many Palestinian houses have no
permits, these families know that their homes could be demolished at any
time, although they could stand for many years, adding to the anxiety and
uncertainty.  In addition to risking the loss of their homes, Palestinians
also can be heavily fined to the tune of up to $25,000 for not having a
permit. Sometimes they even have to pay for the demolition costs of their
own home.

The systematic demolition of Palestinian homes is an attack on an entire
people, an attempt to make the Palestinians submit to a mini-stateunder
Israeli control, ICAHD coordinator Jeff Halper says.  ICAHD is a
nonviolent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist
Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories. They
have since expanded their resistance activities to other areas: land
expropriation, settlement expansion, by-pass road construction, the
policies of "closure" and "separation," the uprooting of fruit and olive
trees, and rebuilding houses. The Kabuahs was one of the houses chosen for
rebuilding by ICAHD.

A noble tradition: breaking an unjust law

About 20 people of all ages from Europe and North America came to the
village of Anata in August 2004 in response to ICAHDs invitation to
rebuild the Kabuah house together with Palestinians and Israelis. Devorah
Brous, a young Israeli woman and the camp manager, greeted the
international volunteers on the first day of the building camp.

During this camp, we will strive to learn as much as possible about the
various components of Israels Occupation while challenging it, Brous
said. Building settlements, bypass roads, industrial zones, even nature
reserves, is the Israeli governments strategy to create facts on the
ground. Instead of just demonstrating, instead of just holding up signs of
protest about what is happening in the field, we too create facts on the
ground. We work together to resist the Occupation actively, strategically,
and assertively. Little time was wasted before work began in earnest.

The volunteers stood at the building site ready to do some serious work on
the very first day of the camp.  After all, they only had two weeks to
rebuild the house. Together with the Palestinian workers, they carried
heavy buckets of cement for the pillars of the house. Old and young, every
one participated whether one was 20 or 70 years old.

Richard Ward, a 57-year-old writer and former high school teacher from New
Mexico, was one of the volunteers at the site. Rebuilding a demolished
house like we do here is a very true and right thing to do, Ward said. It
is as basic as it gets. Building a home for somebody is symbolic.  But it
is also very real, very tangible.

Every one of the participants in the camp had been informed that they could
be arrested by the Israeli police for participating in the building of a
house without a permit. They underwent nonviolence training in order to
practise how to act if the Israeli police or military came to the camp to
arrest them.

Ward was aware that they were breaking the law, but he still thought their
action was correct.  We are breaking the law, but you know, even in the
United States we had Martin Luther King who said that it was ones moral
duty to break a law that is unjust, and I feel like we are following this
tradition, which is a noble tradition, Ward said. I feel very good about
breaking the law in this case, very good. And if we get arrested, we get
arrested.

Building relationships through building a house

Building a house is also a vehicle to build new relationships and, in some
cases, new perceptions and thoughts. Matt Robson was one of four members of
the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) helping to build the house. Things in this
region are very polarized, Robson said. Many Palestinians see Israelis as
bad people and many Israelis see Palestinians as bad people. I like
projects where everyone works together and breaks down those barriers. On
the building site, it didnt really matter who you were and where you were
from. If you had a skill, you used your skill. If you didnt, you just
picked up a bucket and moved things around. I think it was a good example
of cooperation.

Sara Turra, a young Italian woman, has spent the last five months in Hebron
for the organization International Palestinian Youth League. The only
Israelis she had met were settlers and soldiers. It was difficult for me
to think of them as ordinary people, Turra said. After the camp, I have
another view of Israelis. It makes things more complicated. It is easier to
see things in good and bad, good Palestinians and bad Israelis, but for
sure it is better with a more diversified picture of the truth.

Bill Christison, a retiree who used to work for the United States
government, joined in the camp as part of his longstanding commitment to
the Palestinian cause.	He believes that Americans are predisposed to
having positive viewpoints about settlers, an issue which always presents
itself as a major stumbling block in any peace negotiations.  The word
settler is a very positive word for Americans, he said. People all
through the 1800s became settlers in the US, so that is a word that
Americans like to hear.

Before she began the building project, Salome Phillmann, a 23-year-old
American active in Iowans for a Free Palestine, was worried that the
Palestinian views on gender roles would be a problem.  Women dont usually
build houses in Palestine. I didnt know if I would receive the same
amount of respect as men, but I have been wholly surprised because I have
never felt like I was not treated equally to any other worker at the site,
Phillmann said. If I wanted to do any particular job, from laying brick to
mixing cement, they willingly let me give it a try.

Global campaign to rebuild Palestinian homes

ICAHD wants to be able to rebuild more homes and for this reason has
started a programme called Right to a home...and a homeland. Global
campaign to rebuild Palestinian homes. They hope to raise enough money to
rebuild 20-30 homes, and are encouraging people all over the world to have
house parties to raise consciousness about the Occupation and funds for
rebuilding.

In Mohandas Gandhis nonviolent struggle against the British occupation of
India the constructive programme was as important as the non-cooperation
with the occupation. Gandhi meant that the world must be built up at the
same time as unjust actions are resisted and evil structures are brought
down.  Rebuilding Palestinian homes fulfills both these goals - resisting
an oppressive occupation while building homes and a possible state for the
Palestinian people.

How the perception of "the other" is built is an important part of the
creation of and the resolution to any conflict.  Another clear nonviolent
feature of the building camp is the refusal to see the other as an enemy.
It is Israelis; it is Palestinians and internationals, all of us together
telling our governments: we refuse to be enemies, Halper said.

After two weeks it was done.  The house that once was a pile of rubble
stands again, risen like a Phoenix from the ashes. It is beautiful,
Phillmann said, not trying to hide her pride in taking part in the
construction. She is determined to come back next summer to rebuild another
demolished house together with ICAHD.

All of a sudden, 23 people see their house surrounded by bulldozers and
they are thrown into the street, said Abu Jamal, head of the Kabuah
family. We are only left with the option of choosing hatred.  But when we
see all these volunteers coming to help us, we realize that we are not
alone. I want to thank the international community, Palestinians, and
Israelis for coming to help us have a home again.

Many people were invited to a house-warming ceremony with singing,
speeches, dancing, tree-planting, and wonderful food. Salim Shawamreh,
whose house has been destroyed four times, addressed the international
volunteers who helped build the house.	I appreciate that you leave your
families overseas, coming here to help Palestinians, not only by words, but
with your hands, he said. I appreciate you coming here to bring back a
family of 23 people. The Israeli Occupation sent them onto the street. You
are returning them back now to their home. This is a big thing.

- - -

(*) Martin Smedjeback is secretary for nonviolence in the Swedish
Fellowship of Reconciliation. During a prior visit to Israel and Palestine,
he collected material for a book entitled Nonviolence in Israel and
Palestine. He is currently working as an ecumenical accompanier in
Jerusalem.

Free high resolution photos to accompany this story are available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/palestine/anata.html 

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect WCC policy.
This material may be reprinted freely, providing credit is given to the
author.

Media contact in Palestine/Israel: +972 (0)2-628-9402 +972 (0)54-799-8724

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was
launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts
of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians
and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence,
engage in public policy advocacy and stand in solidarity with the churches
and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is
coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC).
http://www.eappi.org 

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