The Nation: “The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza- The extraordinary story of a 14-year-old, her mother, and what happened when the Israeli military came to destroy their house.

 Lujayn describes an increasingly common tactic of the Israeli military in her narrative: bulldozing buildings with people still inside. In addition, Lujayn’s story serves as a warning to the world about the dangers of Israel’s threatened invasion of Rafah. If she were displaced again, she and her family would have nowhere to go.

Lujayn is a brilliant student. She had been planning to go to university to study mathematics. But there are no more universities left in Gaza, and Lujayn has no permanent home. All she can do right now is survive and tell her story. For Lujayn as for many Palestinians, storytelling is a form of resistance.

“The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza

The extraordinary story of a 14-year-old, her mother, and what happened when the Israeli military came to destroy their house.

Lujayn  Rafah, March 2024

This picture taken during a media tour organized by the Israeli military on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers standing near a bulldozer inside Gaza City. (Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images)

This story was originally written in Arabic by a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza named Lujayn. Along with one of Lujayn’s relatives, I have translated it into English. She initially wrote this story for her mother and then decided to share it with the world. It recounts her family’s forced displacement from the house where they were sheltering in Khan Younis. This was the fourth time Lujayn had been displaced since Israel’s assault on Gaza began.... READ MORE  https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-bulldozer-kept-coming-a-girl-stares-down-death-in-gaza/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 

Rachel Corrie 5th Grade Speech: I'm here because I care

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.

My Name is Rachel Corrie- March 16, 2014

Every year we remember Rachel on this date with activities encompassing three values she held closely: action, education, and community.

About

Welcome, from Craig & Cindy Corrie

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice is a grassroots, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that conducts and supports programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. The foundation encourages and supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, which we view as pre-requisites for world peace. Continuing the work begun and envisioned by our daughter, Rachel Corrie, our initial emphasis has been on Israel/Palestine.

We conduct and support projects that educate for peace and justice, that foster connections and understanding between peoples on global and local levels, that promote the use of art and the written word in fostering justice and peace, and that encourage individual grassroots participation in bringing to fruition a positive world vision.

Palestinian Forced To Demolish His Home In Jerusalem

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

http://www.imemc.org/article/66480

[Saturday, November 30, 2013] Adel Ameera, a Palestinian man from occupied East Jerusalem, was forced to demolish his own home in Sur Baher, south of the city, after an Israeli court deemed his home “illegal”.

IMEMC Image - Radio Bethlehem 2000

Ameera told Radio Bethlehem 2000 that the city's district court had previously ordered him to demolish his home by December 1st, 2013.

He built the two-story structure a year ago, so that he and his family could live on one floor, and his son on another. Ameera stated that the land where his home is built is owned by the family, and was classified by Israel as area C, where Palestinians are not allowed to build, so that Tel Aviv can build and expand its illegitimate settlements.

He further stated that he received official notification from the Jerusalem City Council informing him that, should he fail to demolish his building, the city would demolish it and force him to pay at least 200,000 New Israeli Shekels in fines.

Ameera told reporters that his family does not have financial resources, and voiced an appeal to human rights groups to help his family, who was rendered homeless by Israel’s illegitimate policies.

The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) has reported that, following the six-day war in June, 1967, Israel started practicing a range of policies leading to the displacement of more than 160,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The year 2011 witnessed the largest number of home demolitions as Israeli soldiers demolished nearly 622 structures, leaving at least 222 families (roughly 1094 Palestinians) homeless.

Israel levels Catholic Church property in E. Jerusalem amid ‘massive demolition’ plan

Children look on as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal (C) stands amongst the ruins of a Palestinian home, on November 5, 2013. (AFP Photo / Ahmad Gharabli)

http://rt.com/news/israel-palestinian-homes-demolish-323/

The Catholic Church has lashed out at the Israeli government, after its property in East Jerusalem was bulldozed to the ground. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian flats were marked for demolition just before US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit.

Last week Israeli security forces arrived with bulldozers at a piece of property owned by the Catholic Church in east Jerusalem, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. They said it had been built without a permit and proceeded to destroy it.

This provoked a backlash from the head of the Catholic Church in Israel who said the demolition was carried out without any prior warning.

“This act is against the law, against justice and humanity, against any ideology upon which peace can be built and increases segregation and hate,” Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Faud Tawwal told AFP at the site of the demolition on Tuesday. The property had been standing before Israel annexed the area after the 1967 Six-Day War, he said.

This comes amid rumors of Israel mulling its biggest demolition plans in years, as over 15,000 Palestinian flats in east Jerusalem are under threat.

The demolition of flats in the Ras Hamis area, which is next to the Shuafat refugee camp, was announced by posters put up on the apartment buildings themselves last week.

...READ MORE