By Ed Nyce
ANATA, West Bank - Over the past
15 years, the Yamani family's six homes have included a makeshift tent,
a shipping container and houses that were demolished right before their
eyes.
Now a Palestinian and an Israeli organization are supporting their efforts to build a permanent home, partially through a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) grant.
Hashem and Rabikha Yamani and their seven children currently live in a tent that they fashioned from steel rods, plastic sheeting and corrugated tin.
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, a Palestinian organization, are now building the family a new home here in Anata, with help from MCC. Anata, which is northeast of Jerusalem, is believed to be the prophet Jeremiah's hometown.
The family's five previous homes were all demolished by Israeli authorities because Hashem lacked proper permits. The efforts of Israelis from ICAHD are making an impression on his children, Hashem says.
"How can I prevent [negative thoughts and actions] when they've seen the bulldozer come [and destroy our home]?" he asks. "What can I say to them?"
"That's why the Israeli volunteers who come here to help on our house are so important," says Hashem. "They give my children a different picture of Israelis than that of the soldiers."
The Yamani family's story is not uncommon here. When they destroy Palestinians' homes, Israeli authorities accuse the residents of not having proper building permits. Typically such permits are indeed missing.
But for most Palestinians, it's not for lack of trying. "We want to get permits," says Salim Shawamreh, who has had four homes destroyed. "I tried three times for my house, and was told no each time. The second time they told me that it's not possible because 'your land is on a slope.' Jerusalem itself is on a mountain! I can't build because I'm on a slope?"
"The reason for all this is that the Israelis want to expand their settlements, and want the land for those purposes," says Shawamreh.
Much of the land on which Israel is demolishing houses and, in the midst of the "Roadmap" peace plan, continues its development plans, is outside its legal, pre-1967 boundaries.
In 1987, the Yamani family's house in the village of Yatta, south of Hebron, was destroyed by Israeli authorities. Five years later they had moved to Anata, where again Israeli authorities tore down their house.
Desperate for a place to live, the family moved into a cavernous, empty shipping container, used to import goods. "The authorities came to us with a warning - 'You can't stay here,'" recalls Hashem. "But I didn't leave. I had no other place to go."
One day while he was working as a tile maker, "people came and told me that soldiers were surrounding our container. I went right away - and there was the container, being destroyed.
"Imagine watching that, and you can't do anything about it. Your wife is thrown over there, your kids are screaming - it destroys our humanity, to see that and not be able to do anything."
"How many houses can you make in your life?" he asks.
They moved in with his wife's family temporarily while Hashem constructed their current make-shift tent.
Whether or not their new house will last is unknown. Hashem and ICAHD were unable to obtain permits, but they consider building the home a form of nonviolent, civil resistance.
Hashem finds encouragement in the efforts of Palestinians and Israelis working together to rebuild his home.
In 2003 MCC is contributing $28,170 Cdn./$20,000 U.S. to ICAHD to help rebuild Palestinians' homes.
Ed Nyce, of Lancaster, Pa., is an MCC peace development worker in Bethlehem.