I was reading the papers this morning - the front page read "E. Jerusalem man slain after he sells building to settlers" - reading further I noticed the victim was Mohammed Abu-al-Hawa, 40 years old. He apparently sold a 4 story apartment building to Jews in A-tur, near the Mt. of Olives. The building had been bought by Elad, a nonprofit organization settling Jews in Palestinian neighborhood. According to the report -His brother said someone showed up with $300,000 in cash to HIS door for HIS apartment. He actually refused the money. But his brother was not lucky and the family said the transaction was made through a Palestinian family to a Jordanian Investment Company. They may not even have known the sale was to Jews.
I knew he was a relative of my friend Ibrahim, but wasn't sure if it was his son or another relative. I called up several friends, but none were answering their phones. I was getting frantic. I was too nervous to call Ibrahim, and talk to him, but in the end I did call him. Turns out it was his nephew. I stammered who I was and said over and over again.
"I am so sorry this happened to your family"
He replied - God will take care of everyone, and then wished me a Shabbat shalom.
I wanted to offer to help their family somehow who are now fatherless and he had 7 children, but that didn't come through. I just couldn't manage the words. But I'm sure I'll find out in the next few days if they need any monetary help and post it here.
Again, this is tragic - on the one hand, tragic that people will murder people for political and racist reasons such as selling homes to Jews and on the other hand, tragic because there is also something arrogant at the eagerness of Jewish organizations wishing to uproot Palestinian families who had been living here for generations...
Friday, April 14, 2006
Deadly Real Estate
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4 comments:
Nice blog.
My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones in this senseless conflict.
May justice be served. And may we all learn to respect all life, whether Palestinian, Arab, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, etc.
Thank you and hope your good wishes come true...
Jerusalem is already "Judaized" - and "Christianized" and "Islamized" - and this is perfectly fine - because it HAS to be recognized as the center of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - and my wish is that people are more tolerant of the neighborhoods of the Other. For example, I don't mind excavations in Silwan - what was the ancient City of David, so long as it is done in public areas, i.e. parks - and not asking the Arab residents of Silwan to vacate their premises because their home will be demolished to make way for an archeological park, etc. There's a fine line here, but it can be done with respect for the Other.
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