Welcome to the Soap Factory



Typical occupied house being used as a barracks, this house was on the outskirts of Old Askar and has been covered with camouflage netting by the IDF.


News from Nablus


Occupied houses.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Hi All,
Occupied houses are a regular thing here in Nablus. The army occupies them for various reasons usually because they are doing some sort of assassination operation in the area and the house is in a commanding position overlooking the old city etc. The last one I visited was in Askar when 15 soldiers occupied the same house that had been occupied last year on the same date. Last year two men had been killed, but thankfully this year no one was killed.

Today I visited another occupied house, this one was slightly different to any I had visited before. Sometimes houses as well as being used as sniper posts are also used as troop billets. This house was built up on the hill between Nablus and Iraq Burin and stands on it's own with no view of the city. The construction of the house was started in 1998 and the families moved in some time in 2001. It is a very impressive well built modern house.
The so called ‘Captains Hotel' which has been repeatedly occupied.

Much money has been spent on its construction and fittings. It was first occupied in 2002 and has been occupied 35 times since then, the longest period lasting for 5 months. The troops are using it as a luxurious hotel calling it the Captains Hotel. They have taken over the third and second floor and the two Palestinian families are relegated to the first floor. The army pays nothing for living there but uses the gas, water and electricity for heating etc which the family has to pay for. Yesterday and today we were getting contradictory reports about whether it was still occupied. This morning when I visited the house with Marie-Jo we found out that the soldiers had left at 2:00pm yesterday but had returned again this morning at 1:00am.
Living with solders in your own house is a real ordeal.

The families have to live with this constant worry that the soldiers will arrive at any time of the day or night. As the one mother said 'when I go shopping I'm always worrying that when I get home the soldiers will be there'.
As well as the use of the house as a hotel it has been used for interrogation. Last year the army brought in a bulldozer that dug a large hole or pit outside in which Palestinian detainees were put before being brought in to the house for interrogation. The mother was very upset with the effect that this had had on the children who had seen the handcuffed and bound men kept in the pit, and heard the shouts and disturbance of the interrogations.
On another occasion the mother had wanted to go to hospital to be with her sister who was about to give birth. When she asked the soldier for permission to go he pointed his gun directly at her and said that he could send her to hospital with a bullet to be with her sister.
We will try to visit the families regularly to see if we can find some way to help, perhaps you could write to the Israeli Embassy and complain about this continual abuse of Palestinian civilians throughout the occupied territories.

All for now peace and bright moments, Dave.


Back to the Menu