Demolishing of Home Doesn’t Destroy Palestinian Family Spirit

Thursday, October 03 2002 @ 02:29 PM GMT

By Ali Samoudi,
Palestine Chronicle Correspondent

TAMOUN, West Bank (PC) - Israeli occupation forces demolished the house of Mohammed Ibsharat, in the village of Tamoun, in the Jenin region. The army alleged that Mohammed’s son, Said, currently detained in an Israeli prison is a top leader in the Islamic Jihad movement.

Ibsharat’s wife, Um Said, whose husband is also detained in Israeli prison told the Palestine Chronicle that Israeli forces stormed the house at dawn and ordered the family to evacuate, without being allowed to rescue any of their belongings.

She further claimed that the soldiers treated them “savagely” before blowing up their home using dynamite.

Um Said told the Chronicle, “the practices of the Israeli occupation forces will not terrorize us, it will not scare us, despite all that we have lost, because our will is stronger then theirs. We will stay in our land, holding onto our rights, and we will not bow before them.”

She considered the demolishing of her home and indication of the “weakness of the occupation”. Unable to suppress the people, she says, the only resort they had was to destroy peoples’ homes, hoping to crush their spirit.

All of Um Said’s children, as well as her husband, are in Israeli prisons. She says her oldest son, Said, has been savagely tortured to admit his ties to the Islamic Jihad movement.