[News] Aftermath of Israel’s 22 day offensive on the Gaza Strip

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/campaigns/english/aftermath/5.html

Aftermath (5) Coming home

18 March 2009

  In this new series of personal testimonies, 
PCHR looks at the aftermath of Israel’s 22 day 
offensive on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing 
impact it is having on the civilian population.

Words by Malian/PCHR

[]


Message written by Israeli soldiers in a bedroom 
of the Abu Hajaj home in Johur-ad-Dik  © Kent Klich

One of the most important factors in recovery 
from trauma is the ability to find sanctuary in 
the comfort of one’s home. The right to safety 
and security. For many people in Gaza, this right 
has been repeatedly violated, in the form of the 
destruction of their personal property, often 
wantonly, by Israeli military forces.

Alongside the 1,000s of homes partially or 
completely destroyed by bulldozers, tank shells 
and bombs dropped by F-16 fighter jets, are the 
homes that have been defaced by graffiti left by 
individual Israeli soldiers and the vandalisation 
of civilian property within them.

At Mos’ab Dardona’s home in Jabal Al Rayes, 
northeast Gaza, Israeli soldiers who had taken up 
positions in civilian houses in the area left 
behind intricate drawings on the walls, some 
depicting soldiers urinating on toppled mosques, 
or devouring Palestinian villages. In the house 
next door, belonging to Ibrahim Dardona, soldiers 
left behind dozens of bags of faeces in the 
bedrooms, despite the presence of a functioning 
toilet, and left crude sexual diagrams on the walls.

“The writing left by Israeli soldiers in the 
homes in Gaza provides an insight into the 
disturbing culture of hatred and racism towards 
Palestinians and Arabs which exists among parts 
of Israeli society,” says Hamdi Shaqqura, PCHR’s 
director of democratic development. “In light of 
the evidence PCHR has gathered of the wilful and 
wanton killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, 
this graffiti is even more disturbing.”

The thousands of people who have been unable to 
return to what remains of their homes after 
Israel’s offensive are hard to count precisely. 
Hastily erected refugee tent camps that are 
unsuitable at this time of year have been largely 
abandoned and internally displaced people have 
moved in with extended family members.

Others have had to move back into their partially 
destroyed homes, clear up the debris and 
sometimes the evidence of the deaths of loved 
ones, and try to get on with their lives.  The 
Dardona families have moved back into their 
houses, and are torn between unwillingness to 
destroy evidence of the behaviour of Israeli 
soldiers and reluctance to endure the constant 
reminders of the horrors that took place here. 
And there are similar cases in other parts of the Gaza Strip.

[]


Graffiti in the home of Mos’ab Dardona, Jabal al 
Rayes area, northeastern Gaza Strip © S. Al Tartour/PCHR

In the largely agricultural area of Johr-ad-Dik, 
Israeli forces established bases in some of the 
homes in the early days of their ground 
offensive. Tank tracks cut huge swathes through 
the fields and hundreds of olive and citrus trees 
were destroyed. Half the population of 2,500 was displaced.

At dawn on 4 January 2009, the first full day of 
Israel’s ground offensive, a shell landed near 
the home of Saleh Abu Hajaj in Johur-ad-Dik. 
Radio interceptions made by the Israeli military 
ordered local residents to evacuate their homes. 
Saleh’s 36 year old daughter Majeda Abu Hajaj 
tied a white scarf to a stick and led a group of 
civilians out of her neighbour’s house.

As they were trying to escape, tanks opened fire 
on the group and Majeda was shot dead, allegedly 
in the back. Moments later her 64 year old mother 
Raya, was also shot and bled to death a few 
metres from her daughter. Majeda and Raya’s 
bodies were not recovered until Israel’s 
declaration of a unilateral ceasefire sixteen 
days later. These attacks may constitute willful 
killings, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and war crimes.

Israeli soldiers set up military positions in the 
Abu Hajaj house after the killings, and left 
graffiti in every room. Above Majeda’s bed are 
the words “Death will find you soon” scrawled in 
red pen. Other parts of the house carry the words 
“Have you ever wondered what hell looks like? 
Well
 look around you -----! Ha ha ha”

In the Zeytoun district, where 27 members of the 
Samouni family were killed by an airstrike while 
sheltering in a building they had been placed in 
by the Israeli army, there are more chilling 
messages on the walls. In Talal Al Samouni’s home 
Israeli soldiers wrote the words “Die you all”, 
“Make war not peace”, “Arabs need to die” and a 
gravestone engraved with the words “Arabs 
1948-2009” referring to the dates between the 
creation of the state of Israel and its latest military offensive.

A stairwell in Rashad Helmi Al Samouni’s house a 
few doors down includes the following sentences written in chalk:

“There will be a day when we kill all the Arabs”

“Bad for the Arabs is good for me”

“A good Arab is an Arab in the grave”

“Peace now, but between Jews and Jews, not Jews and Arabs”

While much of the graffiti is inflammatory and 
disturbing, there are also more human expressions 
written by weary Israeli soldiers such as: “How 
much longer will we be here
?”, “Until when?”, 
“We want to go home” and “I have no other country”.

There have been many serious allegations made 
about the conduct of Israeli soldiers who were 
operating in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian 
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is currently 
investigating many of these cases and will be 
bringing evidence to light in due course. But 
whatever the outcome of such investigations, it 
will do little to comfort the thousands of 
civilians whose sense of safety they should feel 
in the privacy of their own homes has been so categorically violated.





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