The policy is working. The family is talking about leaving their
land.

Through press releases and group visits, CPT has focused on the family
of Atta and Rodeina Jabber because their situation illustrates the
dynamics of Israel's house demolition policy. After having lived on
the family land for over six years and building the house themselves,
the Jabbers lost their security to an Israeli bulldozer in August, and
then a second much smaller house quickly built by their extended
family in September. Both homes were destroyed because they were
built without a permit.

For months the Jabber's lived in a tent; people tied to the land, they
refused to leave the area they love so much. But now as the winter
rains come, the family is temporarily living in the bottom of their
cousin's house, a large one-room area filled with bedroom furniture,
cooking supplies and much of what the family owns. While Rodeina and
the kids are in good health, Atta still has health problems as an
after-effect of being beaten by the soldiers during the demolition --
he can't hear well out of one ear, and his back is giving him some
problems. He has been working a little in Shufat camp in Jerusalem,
sleeping during the week in Ramallah.

The Occupation's pressure of making life so difficult so that people
leave the land is working. During our most recent visit, Rodeina
confided that lately Atta has been hopeless, and though she still has
hope, they will be moving to a flat in Hebron's Old City. She is a
woman of the land and said, "I don't know what I will do" in the city.
All she wants is one-eighth of an acre (half dunam) with a one-room
house with a bathroom. They have been to every charitable society
they know, and no one has money for them. The larger extended Jabber
family is also giving them messages that they should move, saying
things like "we already built you a second house; what else can we do,
you need to take care of your young children."

We showed Atta crayon-drawn messages to Prime Minister Netanyahu from
the children of the Jabber's North American match, the Rochester Area
Mennonite Fellowship and the Klassen family. Many of the messages,
written on the back of photocopied pictures of the Jabber family, said
things like: "Why did you demolish their home? I am mad that you did
this!" Atta wants to add another letter from him addressed to
Netanyahu that simply asks, "What do you FEEL when you see these
messages and our situation?"

The heart-breaking victims are of course the children:

Rajeh the youngest turned 7 months old. He is very alert and has
started crawling, and when you hold him the first thing he grabs for
are glasses and beards. He looks just like his sisters and father.
He spent the first months of his life homeless, living in a tent.

Dahlia, age 4, just recently started talking about the demolition of
the house. The first time she mentioned it she had gone up to the
site of the two demolished homes and the tent, and when she came back
she said, "They demolished our house and beat daddy and mommy; what do
they want from us?"

Amooni, age 6, has started preschool and is doing very well; she is
starting to learn how to read and write. Recently she said as an
airplane flew overhead, "That's the airplane that demolishes homes."

The insecurity of homelessness is the result of a legal system that
chimes the hollow refrain: "But they were built without a permit."
The family is leaving the land. These demolitions must stop.