Update :'Seven Hours of Terror' in the Little Town of Bethlehem:

Eileen Fleming

"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the
power and potential of the Internet."
-Charlie Rose, 2005.
On the morning of January 28, 2008 I received the
following email from a friend in Bethlehem:

I was going home from the [Bethlehem] Bible
College and there was Israeli soldiers and lots
of jeeps preventing me to go in the way of my
home, so one person asked me to stay [in his
home] there for a while, until this Israeli
attack finish ... so I am here now for almost
2 hours hearing shooting and bombs all over
AND I WAS TRYING TO CALL HOME AND
THERE WAS NO ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the end my mom called me and told
me that many Israeli armed soldiers entered
our home and THEY PUT ALL MY FAMILY
IN ONE ROOM AND THEY TOOK THE
WHOLE HOUSE UNTIL THEY WILL
DESTROY A HOUSE NEXT TO [ours]

So at this moment one or more family will
have no home in this very cold weather or
shelter and my family and me don't know
when this thing going to finish…I wish I
had a picture to show you how scary it is.

I immediately phoned my friend but due
to all the background noise could not hear
him well, but his anguish was most palpable.
I then phoned his brother who was in the home
seized by the Israeli soldiers and was told:

"We are being held hostage in one room.
Five minutes ago three soldiers searched me.
There are many on the roof and they have been
shooting, but we have no idea who they are
looking for or how long this will go on. Pray
for us and tell everyone you know to pray
for Bethlehem."

At 11:30 AM EST I phoned
again and learned:

"We are still trapped in this room with no windows.
Four very loud explosions happened since last phone
call-vibrations knocked our walls, things broke.
There is still nearly constant gun fire. Maybe it
stops for a few minutes, but then returns. Pray."

At 1 PM EST I made another call and my friend
whispered, "It is still going on...we are
barricaded in this room and I have to go
to the bathroom and I can't get out...
I can't talk now."

At 3 PM EST I called Bethlehem again and
my friend said: "Seven hours of terror finally
over. The soldiers are finally gone and now I
can tell you that about 2:30 here I heard my
dogs barking in the kitchen and right outside
on our porch were two Israeli soldiers with a
German shepherd dog and I was very scared
and called my parents who came right over.
There were maybe three jeeps outside and 5-6
soldiers came into my house and as I was
phoning my brother not to come home they
came into my room and checked my entire
body and all over the room. They ordered my
family not to leave the room for any reason and
about every five minutes over seven hours all
we heard was bullets and four or five huge
explosions. Now that the soldiers are gone
I went to check our roof, that part where is
also a part of our house and the soldiers
had broken the windows to shoot out of.
There had been well over twenty jeeps
outside-they had filled the street, they
didn't come down the way from the Church
of the Nativity, but from the other way, the
way you didn't walk when you were here…
All we know is that the house that was destroyed
was somebody that was wanted by Israel,
we don't know why."

In an email received 1/29/08, my friend
reported that "one person was killed, three
families became homeless in this very cold
weather, a few cars were damaged and the
roads too…please keep praying for comfort
to the family of the guy who was killed."

During our last phone call on the 28th he
told me he would email some photos, but
they haven't arrived yet and every time I
have phoned him today, I receive a recorded
message from the operator saying the
phone is out of service.

"Since 1967, 18,000 houses Palestinian
homes have been demolished in the
Occupied Territories, including East
Jerusalem. … Altogether around 50,000
people have been left homeless (Human
Rights Watch, Razing Rafah, October 2004
… More than 628 Palestinian homes have
been demolished during the second
Intifada as collective punishment and
"deterrence" affecting families of people
known or suspected of involvement in
attacks on Israeli civilians. On average
12 innocent people lose their home for
every person "punished" for a security
offense – and in half of the cases the
occupants had nothing whatsoever to
do with the acts in question. To add to
the Kafkaesque nature of this policy,
the Israeli government insists its aim
is to "deter" potential terrorists,
although 79% of the suspected offenders
were either dead or in detention at the
time of the demolition
(B'tselem Summary 2004:1,3).…
The majority of house demolitions
are conducted for 'Administrative'
reasons and are generally because
the house was built without a permit.
However permits are almost impossible
to obtain by Palestinians living under
Occupation."
http://www.icahd.org/eng/faq.
asp?menu=9&submenu=1

My friends seven hours of terror in
Bethlehem were due to punitive house
demolitions which "is an administrative
procedure carried out without trial and
without proof in court of the guilt of the
person because of whom the action is
taken…During the current intifada, until
recently…Israel treated the action as an
imperative military action. Most of the
house demolitions took place at night
without any prior warning and without
giving the occupants a demolition order,
as required by Section 119 of the
Emergency Defense Regulations.
The occupants were given a few minutes
to remove their possessions to avoid
having them buried in the rubble…
Whatever the legal basis, punitive house
demolitions flagrantly breach international
law which allows destruction of property
only when necessary for a military
operation (article 53 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention). According to the
official commentary of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, "military
operation" is defined as "the movement,
maneuvers, and actions of any sort, carried
out by the armed forces with a view to
combat." Punitive house demolitions do
not meet this definition…International
law also prohibits collective punishment,
i.e. the punishment of persons for acts
committed by others (article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and Article
50 of the Hague Regulations). House
demolitions are a clear case of collective
punishment in that the primary victims
are relatives of the persons suspected of
committing an offense."
http://www.btselem.org/english/
Punitive_Demolitions/Legal_Basis.asp

In a letter of appeal from American Israeli,
Founder and Coordinator of Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions
/ICAHD and a 2007 nominee for the
Nobel Peace Prize, Jeff Halper wrote:

Given the tragic destruction and violence
of the past few months, it is extremely
important that we the Israeli, Palestinian
and international peace forces respond
with a resounding "NO!" to the continuing
Occupation and policies of repression.

The rebuilding of demolished Palestinian
homes, whether destroyed by court order
or under the guise of "security," is one
appropriate response. ICAHD's resistance
to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes,
combined with our ability to bring hundreds
of Israelis and Palestinians together to
rebuild, is effective in exposing the workings
of the Occupation. It also keeps alive that
spark of common struggle for a just peace
that will allow for reconciliation someday.
House demolitions have become the
hallmark of the Occupation. Indeed,
since 1967 Israel has demolished over
12,000 [the current figure is now 18,000]
Palestinian homes, leaving some 70,000
without shelter and traumatized.

The systematic demolition of Palestinian
homes is an attack on an entire people,
an attempt to make the Palestinians
submit to a mini-state or worse, an
"autonomous" set of islands -- under Israeli
control. We need to struggle against the
Occupation so that both our peoples will
eventually enjoy the fruits of a just peace."
http://icahd.org/eng/support
.asp?menu=7&submenu=1

-###-

Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author Keep Hope Alive and
Memoirs of a Nice Irish American
Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory, Producer
"30 Minutes With Vanunu." Permission is
granted for reprint in print, email,
blog, or web media if this credit is attached
and the title remains unchanged.
Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our
power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine