Build and Demolish

A few days ago the world witnessed the destruction of a Palestinian home, built with stone and sweat, because the occupation authorities gave the owner a choice between destroying the house himself or paying for the rental of the bulldozer. The scene is reminiscent of the incident in 1948 in a Palestinian village when a Zionist officer asked a mother to choose one of her three sons to be shot. There is no large difference between destroying people and homes when one must uproot an old olive tree planted there by one’s ancestors.

The scene resulted in a house in ruins, but the reactions to this dramatic event managed to be filmed via satellite with some brief comments that could not rebuild the house. Despite the constant global chatter about justice and human rights, this man and his family slept under an open sky, covered by frost and indifference.

It seems that the next phase of the sadistic torture practiced by the occupation includes ordering people to effectively kill themselves and their children then demolish their homes, as it was in savage times when one was forced to pay for the bullets that others lodged in the body of one’s child.

This tragedy was met with comedy during the annual celebration of American Israel Public Affairs Committee when the U.S. vice president announced a bias toward and sympathy with the Jewish state, which they rewarded for all its crimes because it was the spoiled golden child of colonialists who are entitled to what they deny others.

But what is missed is that strongmen usually derive their power from phantoms of weakness. The cornerstone of the house will remain and become a weapon to a child who will cling to the embers of the home even if he is homeless.

These crimes, of course, come with two sorts of leveling: that of dust and that of human beings. This scene confirms the racist attitude which also has Arabs not mixing with settlers on buses. This is essentially a manifestation of the apartheid wall, whose system must one day give to the ideas and concepts of the restoration of rights, freedom, truth and law. This racial position in America was defied when a black woman refused to give up her seat to a white man, but they themselves are ignorant of history and will be ignorant of the future because they only act in their own interest and for their own desires.

Today tear down your house. Tomorrow uproot your tree with your own hands. The next day choose a child to be put to death. The final sequence of the occupation is looming and you should simply question, what are we going to do about all this? Silence is complicit and speech fades into the air and acting is prohibited.

Regarding the settlements, General Ehud Barak ironically told the Jerusalem Post that removing an arm from its shoulder is easier than removing one nail from the arm.