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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-war-against-widow/26291">https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-war-against-widow/26291</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel's war against a widow</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/budour-youssef-hassan">Budour
Youssef Hassan</a></span> <span class="field
field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-12-20T19:07:00+00:00">20 December 2018</span></span>
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<figure id="file-72996"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>It was a few minutes past midnight when hundreds of
Israeli soldiers stormed al-Amari refugee camp. They
had come to demolish the house of Latifa Abu Humaid, a
widow in her seventies.</p>
<p>Latifa was expecting the raid from Israel’s forces of
occupation. The previous day, she had been instructed
to evacuate her home within 24 hours.</p>
<p>She decided to stay put. Youth from the camp –
situated south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank –
had joined her, determined to resist the invaders.</p>
<p>When they arrived, the Israeli troops beat and pushed
the people gathered inside the home. They fired stun
grenades and tear gas before dragging Latifa and
everyone else out. Many of Latifa’s neighbors were
rounded up.</p>
<p>“We were first detained in the football field, in the
freezing cold, at 1am,” said Naimah Fayiz, 64, who
lives near the Abu Humaid family. “The football field
was full of detainees, including children. We were
forced to stay there for almost half an hour before
being taken to the village’s school.”</p>
<p>Israel’s mid-December raid on al-Amari sparked
confrontations with local youth that lasted for hours.
It was never going to be a match of equals. An army
was taking on a widow. The invading soldiers had
modern weapons; the local youth had rocks and Molotov
cocktails. A small refugee camp was pitted against
Israel, a state backed by the US and other powerful
governments.</p>
<p>At 5:30 am, the Israeli military blew up Latifa’s
home with dynamite. Her home was located within a
four-story building. Four hours later, the military
blew up that entire building.</p>
<h2>“Full-blown operation”</h2>
<p>The home of Naimah Fayiz was damaged in the second
explosion. So were the homes of several other
neighbors.</p>
<p>“Not since the invasion of the second intifada can I
recall a raid like this,” Tamer Hammad, a resident of
the camp, told The Electronic Intifada. “It was as if
they were planning to carry out a full-blown military
operation, not just demolish a house.”</p>
<p>The tactic of punitive home demolitions is used
systematically by Israel. It involves collective
punishment. A whole family gets penalized for the
resistance activities allegedly undertaken by one of
its members.</p>
<p>Israel <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israels-high-court-champions-revenge-against-palestinian-families">suspended</a>
its policy of punitive demolitions in 2005. Yet it was
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-cant-crush-solidarity/17261">reactivated</a>
under the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu a
decade later – officially as a response to a
Palestinian uprising which began in October 2015.</p>
<p>“It is difficult to comprehend why they brought such
a large number of troops when they could have
demolished the house with a much smaller unit,” said
Yousif Abu Humaid, one of Latifa’s sons. “Perhaps
because they expected the resistance to be strong or
maybe it was done to boost Netanyahu’s popularity. It
is hard to know.”</p>
<p>The demolition in al-Amari and the way in which it
was orchestrated went beyond “normal” punishment or
retaliation. It appears that the Israeli military
sought to turn punishment into a public spectacle
aimed at humiliating a community.</p>
<h2>Defiant</h2>
<p>“If they think that this demolition will break me,
they clearly know nothing about me and my family,”
Latifa – who is also known as Um Nasser – told The
Electronic Intifada. Her home was previously destroyed
by Israel in 1991 and 2003.</p>
<p>“This is the third punitive demolition that targets
my home,” she said. “And each time they demolish, our
commitment to the liberation of Palestine grows even
greater.”</p>
<p>Latifa’s son Islam is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/netanyahu-delivers-threats-collective-punishment">accused</a>
of dropping a marble slab from a rooftop – thereby
fatally injuring a soldier – during an Israeli raid
earlier this year. He is being held in Ofer, an
Israeli military jail within the West Bank. Latifa has
been able to visit him only once since he was arrested
in June.</p>
<p>“Israel wants to portray Islam as the aggressor for
killing the soldier,” one woman living in al-Amari
said. “But he was defending his camp, his people. The
attackers are the Israeli soldiers who repeatedly
invade the camp and terrorize us. Are we expected to
celebrate their raids?”</p>
<p>Four other members of the family are imprisoned,
having been convicted on charges relating to suicide
bombings and other armed actions inside Israel. Jihad,
another of Latifa’s 12 children, is being held without
charge or trial – a practice known as administrative
detention.</p>
<p>Whenever Latifa has been able to speak with her sons
in jail, she has always offered them words of
encouragement. She recalls going to see her son Nasser
on one occasion. “I told him to remain defiant just as
I raised him to be,” she said. “When you choose the
path of Palestine, you should never look back.”</p>
<h2>Bearing witness</h2>
<p>Latifa has also suffered the pain of losing a child.
Her son Abd al-Munim was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/starving-their-sons/20511">assassinated</a>
by Israeli forces in 1994. He was accused of killing
an intelligence officer during an ambush in the
Ramallah area. Abd al-Munim was a commander in the
Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.</p>
<p>Israel issued an order to confiscate the land on
which the family’s home was built following Abd
al-Munim’s assassination.</p>
<p>A protest tent has now been set up next to Latifa’s
demolished home in al-Amari. Many visitors to the tent
have spent time in prison with her sons. Others – such
as Hazem Shunnar from Nablus – know what it is like to
see their home destroyed.</p>
<p>“They also demolished my family’s home as punishment
for our involvement in the resistance,” Shunnar said.
“Our pain takes different forms but its substance is
the same.”</p>
<p>Originally from Abu Shusha – a village near Ramle in
historic Palestine – Latifa was an infant during the
Nakba, the ethnic cleansing at the time of Israel’s
foundation in 1948. She has spent most of her life in
al-Amari.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen my children grow here,” she said. “I’ve
lived my happiest and hardest moments in this home. I
shared my life with my husband here. I’ve rebuilt the
home after they demolished it. It is rooted in me.
It’s not about the physical structure, it’s about the
memories, the moments.”</p>
<p>One of her sons, Naji, has an idea for what should be
done with the demolished building. He thinks its first
floor – severely damaged but not entirely destroyed –
should be turned into a museum.</p>
<p>“We will restore it and turn it into a museum that
commemorates the resistance of our family and of
al-Amari camp,” said Naji. “Unfortunately, my mother
will not be able to live here again. But her house
will continue to bear witness to our perseverance and
to Israel’s oppression.”</p>
<p><em>Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian writer
based in Jerusalem. Blog: <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/budourhassan.wordpress.com">budourhassan.wordpress.com</a></em></p>
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