Eventually, after many appeals from Israeli and international activists, the military authority gave him permission verbal only to rebuild but decreed that his farmland up to the very walls of the new house, already badly vandalized by local Israeli settlers, was confiscated. Several levels of this matrix reinforce each other. This matrix, already in place, precludes the creation of a viable Palestinian homeland. Outmoded and arbitrary zoning laws, enforced by the constant denial of building permits and disregard of valid land deeds, all backed up by the courts, restricts the growth of villages and even families and forces farmers to watch the destruction of crops and ancient olive trees on their own land. All this, added to the restrictions on travel and the difficulty of obtaining job permits to work inside Israel, make supporting a family in its own homeland very problematic.
Arrests are typically at night, disrupting the home and terrorizing the children.
Many Palestinians stress the impact on children as the most dangerous effect of the occupation. Isolated in their villages, their schooling disrupted by closures and curfews, classmates perhaps killed or wounded in demonstrations or just because they walked home in the wrong place, some are so traumatized that they fear leaving house or parents in case they will not find them again. Most are rapidly learning that the United States, its name on shells they collect, is not their friend. This is a situation we must take seriously. I have been mediating on hope.