Raided by the Israeli Army in Beit Ommar

July 08, 2014 IMEU
Raided by the Israeli Army in Beit Ommar

Mousa Maria, the 35-year-old co-founder of the nonviolent Palestine Solidarity Project in Beit Ommar, a town in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, recalls when soldiers raided his home one night in late June. “My daughter is four years old,” he says. “She was screaming and afraid and angry because the soldiers had their faces covered and it was the first time she had seen soldiers in her home. She grew up in the US and is visiting me. Now she is always asking where the bad guys are and she thinks she is always under attack. I am sad and angry at her situation.”

The home raid hasn’t been the only time Israeli forces have targeted Mousa. “The second time they went to my farm,” he shares. “I have a chicken farm four kilometers north of Beit Ommar. They went there and soldiers started to break down the door, tear off the roof, and damage the water well. After doing all this they left. The cost of the damage is $8,000. I am very mad at them for what they did.”

The town as a whole has suffered from the Israeli invasions. “Since June 12, Israeli forces have blockaded the town four different times,” Mousa says. “They close the gate at the entrance of the town and no one is allowed to go in or out. The army has been raiding houses, breaking many things, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets. In the middle of the night, they undertake arrest campaigns in the town – this is still going on until today.”

“In general we are under attack,” Mousa explains. “The Israeli army has permission from the government to make Palestinians suffer, through checkpoints, arrests, house raids and killings. They are giving the settlers a free pass to attack everywhere. The settlers are cutting down our olive trees. Even though world attention has shifted, this is all still happening.”