Batting A Thousand And Still Striking Out

Ever wonder what the origins of "terrorism" are? This story about one Palestinian family who recently had their home destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer should give you a hint. And for those who would label me as an anti-semite for printing this, two words: Fuck you. If you think Israel has the right to do this, then I hope somebody bulldozes your fucking home while you sleep. Asshole.

Aziza Abu Ghali is exhausted by her fury and can barely stand. "My husband is 90 years old and has nowhere to sleep. The Jews are just demolishing our houses. I was shouting at the bulldozer driver: 'Don't you have children?' They kill our sons and put us in the morgue. We are praying to Allah to show them the suffering that they show us."

Aziza is one of the few in her street who remember how they all ended up in Rafah in 1948, just as the Israeli state was being created. She was born in the now extinct village of Yubna, which was erased and replaced with the Israeli town of Yavne. Four of her children - three sons and a daughter - were born there also. "The Jews used their guns to make us go away. They tell lies about this now, saying we ran away on our own. Who would leave their home unless they had to? We only left to save the lives of our children. I was a young woman then. I never imagined that the Jews would still be doing this to me."

When the bulldozers came this time, Aziza was asleep. Her husband, Yousef, was in a bed in a neighbouring room. Their son and his family lived across a small yard in two other rooms.

All that was recovered from the wreckage was Yousef's wheelchair. The corner of his bed sticks out from the rubble. Their fridge is tossed on top, wrecked. A metal ceiling fan, its blades buckled like a withering flower, hangs from a surviving wall.

Yousef's son, Sobhi, a nurse in a UN clinic, says his father was lucky to escape. "All day there was shooting. There was a tank near our house and I was afraid to even put my head out of the door. There were Israeli snipers on the top of the buildings. It was dangerous just to show your face.

"I was awake the whole night. I could hear sounds of houses being demolished. At first light I could hear my father knocking at my mother's room saying he wanted to go to dawn prayers. He is almost totally deaf. I wanted to call to him and tell him to stay indoors because they might shoot, but he came out and I had to rush to rescue him."

The family sheltered for a few more hours until the bulldozer's attention turned to their own house, home to 13 people. "I saw the house was about to be demolished. I just picked up my son and my father and dragged them away. We ran out into where the shooting was. The bulldozer driver was indifferent to us. They saw us and knew we were inside. We had just a few minutes to get away. We were crying and shouting at them. I was carrying my father on my shoulders. I don't think he even understood what was happening."

And we wonder why they resort to using suicide bombers.