Destroying Houses and Lives Salim Shawamreh is a Palestinian living with his family just outside occupied Jerusalem. Salim and his growing family have seen their house bulldozed on two different occasions. The Shawamrehs are among the 16,700 West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians whose homes have been demolished since 1987. Home demolition is not a cruelty of the far past, but is alive and well today in Israel, a country that American and Western officials describe as the only democracy in the Middle East.
Any resistance is met with beating, kicking, shooting, and arrest.
A 16 year-old boy who came to help lost his left kidney to a rubber bullet, which also damaged part of his stomach. The law requires a 72-hour notification before demolishing an Israeli home. But, as a military operation in the West Bank, security considerations dictate the reaction, and any attempt to resist will be considered a threat to the safety of the soldiers. Repeated court appeals for an advance notification were rejected because they give the Palestinians a chance to defend themselves, which endangers the soldiers' security. Sometimes, there is no notice at all.