The Holy Land... is in You

Impact of the apartheid wall on the daily life of the Palestinians:

The separation wall exists inside the West Bank land, affecting the lives of 210,000 Palestinians who live in 67 villages and cities in the West Bank.

Consequences of the wall:

-11,7000 Palestinians in 13 demographic populations will find themselves prisoners in the area between the green line and the separation wall

-A double wall, created in the middle of the separation wall area as a security belt, will isolate 19 towns/villages, about 128,000 Palestinian residents

-The wall is an impediment to Palestinian movement and their ability to reach their fields or move to other Palestinian villages and cities in order to market their products

-36 demographic populations will be isolated East of the wall- an area settled by 72,200

Here you can see the separation/apartheid barrier on 3 sides of the house; in reality it is MUCH closer to the actual house than it appears in this picture:

Yesterday in the afternoon Jiries and I visited a family that lives in a house which is surrounded by the wall on THREE sides. The wall stands about 25-30 feet tall, blocking all air circulation and sunlight up until the third floor. Claire and Johnny live in the building with their 4 children as well as Johnny's twin brother, his wife, and their five children. Their situation is particularly unique because the whole family is Christian, leaving them in the middle of the religious aspect of the overall political conflict. I met Claire at Niveen's sister-in-law's house across town, and she invited me to come by and check out her unique living situation. Jiries and I arrived at about 6:15 p.m. and we listened to the SHORTENED version of her story until almost 8:30.

Before 1996, the area that Claire and her family lived in was a thriving business neighborhood. Her husband is a mechanic that fixes particular car parts out of the workshop on the first floor of their house. With some other women from the community, Claire owned (and still does, but by herself) a souvenier/gift shop adjacent to her husband's workshop. Before 1996, that part of the town used to always be crowded with Palestinians AND Israelis, who came over from Jerusalem to buy goods that were much cheaper in Bethlehem. Between the two of them, they were bringing in a good amount of income, their home was safe and their children happy.

One day the Israeli army started showing interest in the area, and eventually the police started hanging out in the neighborhood. They started giving out random and unjistified tickets, and the area became undesirable for tourists and other consumers so both adults were quickly out of business. By 2001 the road leading to their house was totally blocked and a checkpoint was installed. Soon a military camp was set up right next to their house, positioned in a way that the house stood directly inbetween the Israeli and Palestinian crossfire. At that point everyone living nearby had left the area out of fright. Claire and her family were the only people who held their ground on their property because they knew the second they left it their house would be flattened, even though they still owned it, just as it had happened to their neighbors. Furthermore, they had no where to go, and not enough money to follow some of their relatives to other countries like the United States.

The family was soon caught right in the middle of a "high security area". The Israeli military monitoring of their every move was so intense that at one point during the drive from the beginning of their driveway to their house the kids had the red laser dot- from the Israeli guns- on their foreheads. In the middle of 2001 the soliders began storming their house in the middle of the night, waking the children up at gunpoint and forcing all 13 of them into a small corner of the living room while they exchanged fire with the Palestinians. The soliders took their cell phones so that they would not be able to call any outsiders, but when they managed to keep their phones a few times no one ever responded to their cries for help. The soldiers shot from the windows in Claire and Johnnys room, their chilrdren's room, and the roof. They chose Claire's house because it is the tallest one in the area, giving them an ariel advantage. Every night they destroyed the windows of their house, and every day when the fighting had calmed down the family replaced them.

This happened at least two to three times a week from 2001 until 2003. When the soliders came, they broke down the front door without warning then shoved all the family members into a corner of the house behind the only wall that could protect them from the crossfire. There the family huddled together and shouted prayers (they are Catholic) over and over, going through the entire rosary many times, trying to drown out the sounds of shooting all around them. Today that part of their house has been turned into a shrine with some of the objects that helped them get through those terible years, including many pictures of Jesus and Mary. Claire said that in addition to their ultimate survival, many unexplanable miracles occured in the years they spent trapped in that corner.

She told me many depressing and horrific stories. When her children went to bed each night their lips turned blue and their eyes rolled back into their head because they were so terrified all the time. One time, a soldier had his gun pointed at her youngest child, then a 3 year old boy, about 2 feet away from him. Obviously distraught, she asked the soldier why he was doing this to a small child and begged him to stop. The soldier growled at her and moved his gun so that it touched the side of the boy's head, then he told her if she said another word he would kill her.
Later, the soldiers cut the electricity in their house for four months, and another time they totally blockaded them inside the house for 40 days without letting them leave to get any food- for 13 people. They said if anyone even so much as went outside onto the balcony, they would be shot dead on the spot. At that point all of Bethlehem was under strict curfew, and people were only allowed to leave their homes once a week for 2 hours to get groceries at a designated time.

In addition to all of this, in 2001 Claire's husband was lucky enough to have a client visit him who was desperate to get a certain part of his car fixed. While cutting the iron car part with a machine, Johnny accidently got his hand stuck in the machine and the blade went deep into his flesh. Claire took him to a hospital in Beit Jala, but the doctor who tried to treat him was notorious for having botched a previous operation, so she brought him to a hospital in Jerusalem because at that time Israelis and Palestinians could still cross back and forth between the border between towns. A generous doctor cancelled her next surgery to fix his hand before the nerve died, but immediately after their surgery news of a suicide bomber in Jerusalem spread and they had to flee the hospital immediately so they would not be identified as Palestinians and killed by the infuriated Israelis. Johnny still requires another surgery to completely fix his hand, and he said he still lives in constant pain. For this reason, in addition to their living situation, he has not been able to work adequately in order to support his family and pay off tuition bills for his children, especially after paying a handsome fee for his hand surgery. While Johnny tried to work, his brother stayed at home with the women and children in order to protect them as much as possible.

In 2003 the Israelis dug a trench all around 3 sides of Claire's house. At first they beginning digging on 3 feet away from the front door, just enough room for walking but not for driving. Claire and her husband appealed to the military leaders at the camp next door, pleading that Johnny's elderly mother required the use of a car in order to get from their home to the doctors because she suffers from reumatoid arthritis as well as diabetes. The soliders disregarded their request and went along with the digging until they discovered that they HAD to move the wall back a few feet because the sewage pipe, thankfully, was in the way. Two months of digging passed, then one day Claire's children went to school, and when they came back their house was surrounded on 3 sides by the wall.

The wall is almost 30 feet high, and sunlight does not come through the windows of the house until you reach the third floor. Standing at the sink in the kitchen, the window displays a lovey view of the top of the wall with a nasty security camera pointed right at their house. The same is true for the children's room, their parent's room, and the bathroom. They are the only people inside of this wall cove, and they are under constant surveillance. I was allowed to take pictures from the kitchen and the kids' room, but the Israeli military told Johnny is their cameras see anyone take pictures out the windows of the other side of their house, facing the military camp, he will be imprisioned for up to 6 months. There is still a bullethole in the doorway to Claire and Johnny's room to serve as a reminder of the time that he was almost killed (he ducked just in time and the bullet wizzed past where his neck would have been). Until the Israeli military generously created a small drainhole, when it rained in the winters after 2003 inside of the wall would flood. Johnny trudged through the flood of water carrying each of all 9 children over his head every day after school because they did not have a dryer to dry their clothes in time to wear them again the next day, which they had to do since they could not afford to buy any more clothes and they had sold almost all of their possessions to stay alive.

The children's room:


The bullethole in the door:


The Israeli military occupied their house because of its convenient height and location. The family was not a direct security threat to them, but the soliders still completely disregarded their basic needs and failed to relate to them on the simple level of humanity. Today Claire still struggles to earn a small income by selling handcarved olive wood souveniers and hand embroidered pillowcases in her shop downstairs. All the money she makes selling the pillowcases goes to a women's organization in Beit Sahour or an 80 year old woman (who lives by herself because the Israelis imprisoned her son, and after all of his friends and family posted bail they threw him in jail again 3 days later without any charges- his mother lives alone and has difficulties doing basic day to day activites without assistance). The bulletholes have since been patched up, but the wall still stands, and on the other side looms an Israeli watch tower that tracks every little move they make. Did I mention that one camera constantly watches the window into their bathroom?

How are these people a security threat?! What did they do to deserve a life like this??? They are not terrorists, they are civilians who want the same thing that EVERYONE wants, which is to keep their family safe.

Anyways, if you want to help Claire and her family out, shoot me an email (allimccrack@hotmail.com) and I can hook you up with some of the neat stuff she sells. She said she is willing to ship it anywhere in the world.
This is a handmade olive wood carving designed by Claire and her husband, as you can see it is a nativity scene with a removable wall. She said the door in the back represents the space for Jesus to come through even if the wall still stands.



Handmade pillow cover:


The wall around her house: