A Demolished House and an Arrest
Solidarity Delegation, Reflection #3
By, Dr. Bob Ross
Fakhri Abu Diab standing in front of his demolished home in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan. Photo by Noushin Framke.
Good evening from Bethlehem. Here is a video I shot on Saturday of Fakhri Abu Diab, speaking to us in front of his demolished home in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan, in East Jerusalem. The Israeli military bulldozed his home last Wednesday. Every Palestinian home in Silwan has received a demolition order from the Israeli government. Often these demolition orders can sit for ten years before the military carries them out, usually without much warning. The pretext of these demolitions is that either the houses were built without a permit (Israel denies something like 95% of all permit applications to build) or that the Palestinians who own them do not have proper documentation of ownership (most of these properties have been owned by the same families since before the state of Israel was created, and so never got proper documentation). Known by Israelis as "the City of David," Silwan is the Palestinian neighborhood just east of the Old City of Jerusalem, which is where the government is building a cable car route that will take tourists directly into the Old City and where the government is building an archaeology park. And like all Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem, it's surrounded by Israeli settlements and is experiencing an influx of Israeli settlers moving in (often by confiscating Palestinian homes or by building new houses on the ruins of demolished Palestinian homes). Their website hasn't been updated in a long time, but the organization that connected us to Fakhri is called Jahalin Solidarity, an organization composed of Israelis and Palestinians who are advocating and engaging in direct action to save Palestinians from home demolitions and eviction.
A Palestinian boy being detained by Israeli police. (Apologies for the low-quality photo. Bob had to zoom in to capture the moment.)
And here is a photograph I surreptitiously took of a Palestinian boy (who couldn't have been older than 15 or 16) who was stopped, frisked, assaulted, and then detained by Israeli police officers right in front of my eyes in broad daylight, just outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. More than 7,000 Palestinians have been arrested--more than 90% without charge--since October 7th. Police brutality, especially since October 7, has reached unprecedented levels here according to Nadi Al-Nasir, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, with whom we met today. Since October 7th, Palestinian prisoners are not granted an attorney, they are not granted visits by family members, and almost all of them are physically assaulted. The Israeli military has tortured nine Palestinian prisoners to death since October 7th.
Dr. Bob Ross
Bob Ross is a geography professor at Point Park University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has written several articles about Palestine/Israel, mostly about the BDS movement. He is currently working on a book about the role of American churches in the South African anti-apartheid movement. He has been a member of IPMN since 2012 and served on the steering committee between 2014 and 2017. He has also served as co-moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and as a member of the Fossil Free PCUSA steering committee. Bob has traveled to Palestine with several delegations, both as a participant and as a co-leader. In addition to joining movements for justice, Bob loves watching baseball, playing softball, hiking with his family, running, and watching his son grow up right before his eyes. He is a member of East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but as the spouse and son of Presbyterian ministers, he shares his Sundays with multiple congregations.