No place like home
BBC's Tim Franks interviewing the Al Kurds.
Note the proximity of the settlers' entrance on the left and the Al Kurds' entrance on the right.
EAPPI visiting the Al Kurds.
Mrs Fawzieh Al Kurd.
Fawzieh Al Kurd is a remarkable woman. As you approach the house where she lives with her family – one of a row of dwellings on a hillside in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah – your first impressions are of Israeli flags on adjacent houses and the presence of an armed security guard. In the foreground of the house is a spacious patio and above the downstairs windows a large banner proclaims: THIS IS APARTHEID. At the back of the patio a group of young internationals are sitting or lying on mattresses. Fawzieh is a tall woman in her fifties; on meeting her, your first awareness is her smile and warm greeting; you know that she is genuinely glad to see you. In her eyes you also see pain and a steely determination. There is a transparent goodness about her, but she is no revolutionary activist. She simply wants to stay in the house in which she has lived for 52 years, where she was married, and where she has brought up her five children.
The story begins in 1956, when, following the birth of the state of Israel, the government of Jordan which at that time had jurisdiction over East Jerusalem gave land in Sheikh Jarrah for the building of homes for 28 refugee families with the help of UNWRA. Fawzieh came from a well-off family in West Jerusalem; her husband Mohammed is from the Jaffa area. It was agreed that ownership of the houses would be transferred to the families within three years. Following the six-day war in 1967, two groups of Jewish settlers claimed ownership of the land and over the next 25 years a series of legal battles ensued, during which it became clear that the settlers had no legitimate claim on the property. The Israeli Supreme Court did not, however agree to re-zone the land, and in the meantime, settler families began to infiltrate the neighbourhood.
Now, imagine this. You have recently built an extension to your home in order to accommodate your growing family, and in the hope that one day your sons, their wives and children will live there. An adjacent front door means that the apartment is separate but part of the main house. Imagine that after completion of this extension, a group of people claim that the property is theirs, have the front door locks on the extension door changed and move in. Such was the shocking experience of the Al Kurds, when in 2001 during their absence from Jerusalem on a hospital visit to Jordan a settler family took over the extension to their home. Now try to imagine what life has been like for Fawzieh and her family for the past seven years, as they have tried to live a normal life in the face of constant provocation by settler families, who change frequently and for whom it should be said, life must be extremely circumscribed. They make no attempt to communicate with the Al Kurds who more than once have been offered large sums of money to move out, and it is little wonder that Mr Al Kurd’s health has broken down. He is partially paralysed, has a heart condition and suffers from diabetes.
As Fawzieh sits with us on the patio outside her front door, she reflects on the latest developments. Two weeks ago, the settler family now occupying the extension fixed a large plywood structure to the wall, to celebrate Sukkot, without saying anything to the Al Kurds. A new settler investment company has been recently formed and in February of this year submitted a project to the municipality of Jerusalem, proposing the demolition of the 28 homes and the building of 200 settlement units to house Jewish immigrants. This is the real agenda. In July, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order to evict the Al Kurd family, a ruling which is being strongly contested by the Neighbourhood Committee’s lawyer. Around mid-September, the Court ordered the settler family to leave the house, but as a previous order was not enforced, Fawzieh is not over-optimistic. At best, it feels like a temporary reprieve. Recently, the nearby Hanoun family received an eviction order; the head of the household has just completed a three-month prison sentence for refusing to hand over the keys to their home. Fawzieh is grateful for the media attention which the campaign is receiving, through the International Solidarity Movement and for the support of EAs who regularly visit the family. Recently Tim Franks, the BBC’s Jerusalem correspondent interviewed Fawzieh at her home and we are in regular contact with Tony Blair’s office at the American Colony Hotel, which overlooks the area.
Fawzieh speaks with passion about her family, her faith in God, and the rightness of the cause. We are moved by her strength and resilience. Of course she is fiercely protective of her own. That is natural. But her resistance has become part of something bigger than herself and her household – the struggle for justice. There is something of the Rosa Parks spirit about her. She smiles again as we stand to say good-bye, Maasalaame. The armed guard, employed by the settlers passes us on his half-hourly “check”. On the way out we see a large poster on the back wall stating in bold letters: WE WILL NEVER LEAVE OUR HOME – an unambiguous declaration of intent. Knowing the power of the opposition they face, we continue to pray and hope with them for a just outcome. But we sense that time may be running out.
