From: Ali Abunimah
To: atc@npr.org
Subject: Reservists and Demolitions

April 13, 2001

Dear NPR News,

Thank you for Jennifer Ludden's report on All Things Considered this afternoon about growing dissent and desertions among Israeli reservists. Internal dissent of this kind was absolutely essential to ending the United States' war against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, as well bringing an end to Israel's brutal occupation of Lebanon. There is no doubt that it will play a role in eventually bringing an end to Israel's attempts to keep three million Palestinians in the occupied territories under permanent military rule while continuing to steal and settle their land.

It was particularly interesting to hear the voice of the Israeli reservist who had objected to an "immoral" order to demolish a Palestinian house. Such Israeli voices of dissent are seldom heard in the United States. Yet there has been a dearth of reporting by NPR on Israel's accelerated, and widespread campaign of demolishing houses throughout the occupied territories. In recent weeks dozens of houses have been demolished in occupied east Jerusalem, Hebron and Gaza alone.

Many more houses are under imminent threat of demolition. The Aqil family in occupied east Jerusalem, for example, who have been fighting a demolition order for years, imposed because nearby Hebrew University wishes to expand on to their land, are in fear of a demolition as soon as Sunday or Monday. On April 9, occupation troops appeared at the Aqil house, taking measurements and writing down the names and ID numbers of family members. At least 18 other families in the vicinity have also reportedly been informed by the occupation forces that their homes will soon be destroyed to create more space for Jews.

I am fortunate that I go home every night to a home that I love and that I know will be there for me. I cannot even begin to imagine the terror of waiting day by day, hour by hour, for armed troops to come and drag me out of it, to give me perhaps a few minutes or no time at all to rescue a few items--a blanket, some photos, maybe some pots, a few books, and then watch all that I worked for be plowed into rubble. If you had five minutes, what would you take from your home? What about the humiliation and the loss of dignity to human beings subjected to such treatment? I can't imagine how it could be measured. And what happens to a family the day after their house is destroyed, a week, a year later?

Yet this is the fate of hundreds of Palestinian families today. NPR needs to report on them.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org