Grave desecration
By John Friend-Pereira, Ireland
Marah al- Baqqar is a small village South of Hebron. On the 31st of July an Ecumenical Accompanier visited the home of Taleb Hasan Amr who at 80yrs of age had witnessed Israeli military destroy the tomb in which is mother and son were buried. This happened even though the family had offered to open the tomb so it could searched.
What the Israeli military called a ‘weapons search’ of the home had left most of area around the house destroyed, including the children’s play area. No weapons were found.
Through translators, Taleb Hasan Amr’s relatives described what had happened: Hundreds of soldiers and as many as 20 military vehicles stormed Marah al- Baqqar shortly after midnight Monday and placed the village under military curfew. As well as the destruction of the graves, villagers accused the Israeli military of locking three children in a car for six hours. An Israeli military spokesperson replied to this allegation saying, "During the course of operations, in order not to harm civilians unassociated with terror, we put the children and their mother in one of the rooms in the house."
Taleb Hasan Amr, who physically shook with grief while standing at his mother and sons graveside said, “I never saw such brutal ugliness in this life. I lived under many states, but never saw something like this. Imagine, they are after the dead. Where is the conscience of the world? Disturbing the dead is the worst thing they could have done.”
The Israeli military issued a statement stating that they "are sorry that the grave was damaged, but it is important to remember that because terror organizations operate within civilian populations and populated areas, incidents such as this can occur.”
Several days after the event had received some media attention and some Members of the Kensett had called for an investigation, the IDF agreed to repair the damage to the family tomb.
