KK-Forum,
og fra dagens Haaretz:
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/htmls/kat11_8.htm
*********************
The territorial dybbuk and the cave dwellers
By Gideon Levy
The paratroopers raided at dawn: less than two weeks ago the soldiers in
their vaunted red berets, young men from an elite unit, swooped down on
Khirbet Jinba in the land of the caves in the area of southern Mount
Hebron. Bursting into the caves, they removed the possessions of the 17
families - of the hundreds of residents who were expelled from them about
four months ago - that had returned to them, loaded everything on a truck
and without further ado left the site. After traveling for about half an
hour, the truck pulled up at the village of Tawana; the paratroopers'
mission flawlessly accomplished, they dumped everything along the side of
the road and went on their way. The Civil Administration did the planning,
the paratroopers obeyed orders and the operation went off without a hitch.
During the night, soldiers were posted at the caves and prevented neighbors
from supplying the cave dwellers with food and water.By the side of the
road the meager heap of belongings lay exposed to the elements: a pile of
rags that were perhaps children's clothes, scrawny mattresses, a few basic
food products, even some pitas that had been baked at dawn. Israeli
eye-witnesses who arrived at the site encountered a heart-rending site: an
elderly blind man crawling among the objects looking for the remnants of
his clothes. A few children who arrived broke out in tears when they saw
what the soldiers had done to their things. Four months earlier, in the
first eviction operation, they saw how the soldiers treated them and their
parents. But their parents did not give in: they are in the caves now, with
the few belongings that they hide during the daylight hours for fear of the
Red Berets.
This is what is done to people who have the effrontery to return to their
homes, this is how Israel behaves in its dark backyard. In its front yard,
Israel dispatches rescue teams to every stricken place on the planet -
medicine to Mozambique, a new village with a clinic and a shopping center
for Turkey - but here it takes the possessions of a few hundred people and
dumps them by the roadside, leaving themdestitute.
No one took any interest in this raid by the paratroopers two weeks ago,
just as few people are showing any interest in the fact that for the past
four months these people, who were brutally ejected from their cave-homes
near Hebron, continue to be homeless. It took two months after the
expulsion before the Meretz ministers raised the issue in the cabinet;
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh was appointed to investigate - and he
too reached the conclusion that the expulsion is absolutely fair, justified
and necessary. Seven important writers signed a petition, the defense
establishment quickly arranged a meeting with them - and went on behaving
as it had. The peace government is far more perturbed by the fate of Deputy
Education Minister Meshulam Nahari.
All along the number of the cave dwellers who were expelled was put at 300,
but the Civil Administration claimed that was an exaggeration. Last week
the B'Tselem human rights organization issued a new report stating that the
true number is 730. Now it is possible to talk about a disaster area.
The story has its beginnings last October-November, when Israel expelled
all the residents of the caves in the area of the settlement of Havat Maon.
The official reason: the caves were located in an active IDF firing area.
This is easily refuted; the B'Tselem report gives the real reasons. At the
time, the media reported that the evacuation was part of the deal that was
made by the government with the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements: the
evacuation of Havat Maon, where a handful of settlers had been living
illegally for two and a half years, in return for the expulsion of the
hundreds of Palestinians who had been living in the area for decades.
Now, though, a bigger cat has been let out of the bag: the B'Tselem report
discloses that the head of Central Command, Maj. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon,
explicitly told the writers who met with him about the issue that Israel,
which is about to start the final-status talks with the Palestinians, has
an interest in leaving the area under its control. A few weeks ago,
Ha'aretz also reported that the defense establishment has recommended that
the area remain under Israeli sovereignty.
So, it turns out that this is not a firing range and that the issue has
nothing to do with the arrangement between the government and the settlers.
Israel is cleansing the area - there is no other word - of its Palestinian
residents in order to facilitate its annexation when the time comes. It's
one more caprice of territorial avariciousness at the expense of hundreds
of residents who have done no harm to Israel and want only to be allowed to
tend to their flocks of sheep and lead their meager lives in the land of
the caves, which is their land. Where is there another state that expels
people from caves?
About two months ago I saw them in their temporary shelters: here a tent,
there the house of relatives who took pity on them. Soon they will have to
ask them to leave. And what will happen to them? No one is going to offer
alternative housing or financial compensation to these 700 people who have
been scattered to the four winds, wandering as far as the Jiftlik in the
Jordan Rift Valley in search of a roof over their heads. The caves were
their homes: children and elderly people, helpless shepherds whom Israel
has abused citing all manner of reasons, but now it turns out that it is
once again the territorial dybbuk that has seized the authorities.
If Deputy Minister Sneh or Gen. Ya'alon had seen the cowed look of the girl
Rasha and her baby brother Suheib as they stood in their temporary hovel
after their expulsion, they would understand what they have wrought. But
they of course will not take the trouble to actually look at their victims.
What is the fate of 700 Palestinians to them? They, after all, are
entrusted with the security of Israel.
**************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Mar 15 2000 - 12:52:34 MET