Life Under Occupation

[bluesoul]

By JULIANA FREDMAN

It seems like the end of the world. It all stops here, up against the wall.

When Jenin camp was destroyed there was, for what it was worth, and international outcry. True, Israel blocked the official U.N inquiry, the mined layers of rubble remained for 5 months after the attack, and on the recently cleared moonscape of Jenin's `Ground Zero' few houses have risen from the dust. Nonetheless, whether for the strength of the resistance or from the scale of destruction, Jenin has pervaded the consciousness of those outside the region. And there is a general belief among the people of this community that despite everything they will continue to survive here.

During the Ramadan season the camp felt festive. Families wandered around in the night greeting neighbors and visiting for sweets. In an odd twist `silent night', played in a style evoking an ice cream truck, blared from a clothing store. But most of all some houses are coming back. The gaping holes of the ravaged buildings- once sealed with only blankets, have finally been repaired. Jenin is beginning to look a little less like Kabul.

My first image upon arriving to Jenin camp in June of 2002 was of smoldering heaps covered by tanks, returned to the scene of the crime to drive over the rubble and broken homes until even the debris had been demolished. The stunned looks on the face of the old man who did not seem to notice as he sat on his living room couch that the wall of his home was gone leaving him exposed as a tableau to neighbors, soldiers and foreign delegations alike.

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http://www.counterpunch.org/fredman12202003.html