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Palestinians sift through the wreckage of their demolished homes |
The Christian Peacemaker Team of which I am a member for the summer went to visit the family of Shefa, a widowed mother of four grown children living in an area of East Jerusalem called A'zariya. In the Bible, this area is known as Bethany, and Shefa lives just a few doors down from the tomb of Lazarus (that guy that Jesus raised from the dead). Shefa is a Christian who as done the Hajj (it’s a long story, but suffice it to say that there are both Christians and Muslims in the family).
Shefa's family consists of 50-year-old Assa, Khalil, the middle son, Kefah, the unmarried 30-year-old daughter, and Ashraf, at 27 the youngest. Ashraf married and later divorced a US citizen, becoming a US citizen himself and living in the States for the past 11 years.
Shefa’s family has seen a lot of hardship during this last Intifada. The area they live in has always been part of Jerusalem, but the Israeli government is trying to shut them out. A'zariya doesn't really have any economy of its own to speak of. Most people used to work in Jerusalem but now, since they don't have Jerusalem IDs and the new "Security" Wall is being erected almost within sight of their house, there is no more work. Even the modest tourist visits to Lazarus' tomb have slacked off. Everyone in the community is struggling.
Shefa, well into her 60s, if not beyond (she doesn't remember her birthday), has a heart condition, but there are no hospitals in A'zariya. She needs a permit to go see her doctor or get her medicines. Permits, which are generally only good for the day, can be very difficult and time consuming to come by. No one knows what will happen if there is an emergency and she needs to be rushed to the Mount of Olives hospital in Jerusalem. Now travel for work or to visit family member living elsewhere within the West Bank (Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus) also requires these permits. If you lived in some parts of East Jerusalem and raised a family, you could find yourself in a situation where your wife and your older children have Jerusalem IDs and you and your younger children have West Bank IDs. You would need a permit to even see one another.
Most of Shefa’s children are unemployed. Khalil, the middle son, was lucky enough to find work on the grounds of the Sisters of Nagrizia Convent (soon to be locked away on the Jerusalem side of the Wall). He had saved enough money to buy some land, and was slowly building a house on it. He, like many others, took a chance by building the house without a permit, since Palestinians are generally unlikely to actually receive a permit to build, even after paying the fees and submitting the permit requests. It was almost complete when the Israelis came and demolished it.
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His home was almost complete when the Israelis came and demolished it.
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Then Ashraf, who was visiting from the States, was stopped by the Israelis. He showed them his US passport, telling them that he was visiting family, but they demanded to see his Palestinian ID, which he no longer carried. Unsatisfied, the Israelis looked him up on their computer and found his old ID number. They confiscated his passport, telling him he would only get it back when he was leaving the country.
To top it all off, Ashraf got word that he was being called up for active service in Iraq. As a new US citizen, he was required to signup for the Reserves. He left Palestine to join the US military at the end of August. I asked him what he would end up doing in Iraq.
"I'm a truck driver," he said, "I think I'll be hauling missiles around."
I tried to stifle my groan. It is hardly the safest job in Iraq.
When I told the family that I had been in Iraq for five months and this was translated for Shefa, sitting cross-legged on her couch, the elderly woman shook her head at me, and I could tell that she thought I was foolish to go to such a dangerous place.
Before we left, Ashraf lowered his voice. "My mother thinks I'll just be returning to the States at the end of August," he told us, "She doesn't realize that I'm going to Iraq."
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