Re****t, PCHR, 28 May 2008
Nasser Jaber (PCHR)
"They came at four in the morning with two bulldozers, and they left
before 8:00am. I own this chicken farm with my three brothers, and we
worked day and night for 18 years to build up our business. The
Israelis destroyed everything in less than four hours."
Nasser Jaber's chicken farm was bulldozed by the Israeli Occupation
Forces (IOF) 10 days ago, in the early morning hours of 16 May, while
he was sleeping at home in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. He still
looks stunned. Wearily, he guides us round the ruins of his 18-year
business. "This was a lifetime project for me and my brothers" he says
as we clamber over rubble, wire, shattered sheets of metal and
thousands of putrefying chickens. "I have never belonged to any
political faction, and I have never been to jail. I don't know why
they did this." The farm workers who are starting to clear some of the
rubble are all wearing facemasks. Forty-thousand dead chickens lie
smashed amidst the rubble and the stench is sickening.
When his workers raised the alarm that the chicken farm was being
bulldozed, Nasser Jaber didn't rush out to the farm, but stayed at
home, waiting until the Israelis had finally left. "It would have been
too dangerous to come to the farm while they were destroying
everything," he says. "This is not the first time the Israelis have
been here. The [Israeli] border is only two and a half kilometers
away, and they invade this area every month. They had already
destroyed one of our walls, and then the water tanks. But nothing like
this." One section of the chicken farm, a large barn containing 9,000
chickens, was spared the attack, though Nasser Jaber says the poultry
are traumatized, and laying few eggs. The farm used to produce 45,000
eggs a day -- now production is down to 2,000 eggs per day, and Nasser
Jaber is worried the Israelis may return to finish off what's left of
his farm. He estimates that between them, he and his brothers have
already lost more than a million dollars. "I am a peaceful farmer," he
says. "But they destroy our homes, our land -- everything."
Abdul Halim Abu Samra, Head of Public Relations at the nearby Khan
Younis branch of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), says
the IOF are systematically destroying farm land in the Gaza Strip,
especially in border areas. "We have good fertile agricultural land in
Gaza, but Palestinian farmers have been driven off their land in these
border areas by intimidation and attacks like this. The land is now
almost empty a kilometer before the eastern border, because it is too
dangerous for people to live and work there."
As we drive north east towards Sofa Crossing (one of the five
crossings between Gaza and Israel) we see very few people, only an
occasional elderly man leading a donkey and cart. These rural eastern
border areas of the Gaza Strip are emptying, because farmers, many of
whom have farmed here for generations, are now too frightened to live
and work on their own land. The confines of the Gaza Strip, which is
just 40 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide, are being shrunk even
further by relentless Israeli invasions.
The deliberate destruction of civilian property is illegal under
international human rights law and humanitarian law, including the
Fourth Geneva Convention (Articles 33 and 53). Since the beginning of
the second Intifada in September 2000, PCHR has do***ented the
deliberate destruction of more than 40,000 donums (one donum is
equivalent to 1,000 square meters) of agricultural land in the Gaza
Strip. This year alone, almost 3,000 donums of agricultural land
around Rafah and Khan Younis have been destroyed by the Israeli
military (including 500 donums in the last seven days), ruining
vegetable allotments and family owned farms, and contributing to the
devastating economic destruction of the Gaza Strip.
Fifteen kilometers away from the remains of Nasser Jaber's chicken
farm, Mohammed Hamdan Abu Daggah standings amidst the ruins of his
cement factory, which lies four kilometers from Sofa Crossing, and was
bulldozed by the IOF three days ago, on 24 May. "I started this
business in January 2007," he says. "My family invested everything in
this factory. We managed to im****t good equipment under license, and
we had lots of work from local clients, and the United Nations here in
Gaza. But the Israelis arrived in three bulldozers, and they tore up
everything." Abu Daggah's factory was employing 40 local men who now
have no jobs. Like Nasser Jaber, Abu Daggah says he has no idea why
his business was targeted. "I have never been in any trouble and have
never been arrested. They had absolutely no reason to do this -- but
now we have nothing left, except heavy debts that we cannot afford to
pay."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9572.shtml
This re****t is part of the 'Palestinian Center for Human Rights'
Narratives Under Siege series.
http://pchrgaza.ps/
Mirelle
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