Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Eviction, but will anyone care?

Ma'an News Agency reports more than 2,600 Palestinians are facing eviction from their homes.
The 400 are only a fraction of the 2,650 families that the government intends to sue, but fill the maximum capacity for suits at the district court.

The suits charge families from the villages of Nuwei’ma, Ad-Duyuk and Al-Auja of violating state property. Dozens of hearings have already been held, most of which were postponed on the request of families seeking time to get ownership documents in order.

(...)Most families have been living on the land for decades, others for centuries, and some were refugees who returned to Palestine following the 1993 Oslo accords that permitted thousands of refugees to live in the area.

According to dozens of the families involved in the suits, the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had given land in An-Nuwei’ma village to Oslo-era returnees. The structures range from centuries old thatched clay homes, to stone to tents. None of the homes have municipal services; there are no roads, schools are shipping containers with three classes per container. Residents of these three villages make their living from raising livestock, working in construction, and there are some even civil servants.

If that isn't pitiful enough, check this out.
One elderly divorcee, who preferred to remain unnamed, was unable to read the court summons because she is illiterate. The woman lives in a structure built out of thick cardboard she says she stole from a nearby Israeli settlement, it looks more like an arbor than a house, but shields the woman from the summer sun. The average temperature for a Jericho summer is 40 degrees Celsius, and the woman complains of the intolerable heat. “They still want to force us to evacuate and live in hell,” she said.

Because she could not read the court summons the woman missed her court hearing and was told later that she was to be evicted from the structure and would be forced to pay a 50 Jordanian dinar fine (75 US dollars).

Or how about this one?

Thirty-six-year-old Zeinab Safi, a widow whose husband died 5-years ago built a home on the contested land after her youngest son’s bed in the one room she and her six children and three of her brother’s children shared. Safi said she once saw the snakes she complained to friends, and a Palestinian man from Jerusalem helped her build a house. Just as we began to feel settled the court filed a suit demanding we evacuate the house and demolish it. Safi works as an agricultural laborer.

Someone needs to alert the NGO's so they can rally the international community or at least tell Dr. Dawg so he can get a post out denouncing the eeeevil 'colonists' who are running the government. But let's be honest - no one will bat an eyelash or care as there are absolutely no Jews involved.

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