Welcome to the Soap Factory
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.
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.
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.