Israelis help rebuild Palestinian homes

[Violet_Crumble]

Some Israeli citizens are challenging the Jewish state over its practice of demolishing Palestinian houses.

They have taken up trowels and buckets to rebuild two houses that were knocked down in a Palestinian town straddling East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Younes Sbaih says he has been moved by the generosity of about 20 volunteers who are rebuilding his house from a pile of rubble.

The group - some who cart sand and cement while others work with saws and jackhammers - will take just two weeks to build the house from scratch.

"They're my brothers," Mr Sbaih says. "There are no words I can give you to show my appreciation."

Mr Sbaih knows he built the home illegally under Israeli law but did so in the knowledge that Palestinians applying for a building permit in East Jerusalem are nearly always knocked back.

Sure enough, one month after his house was built Israeli authorities ordered its demolition, forcing the family of eight to move in with neighbours.

Peter Smith from Leeds in Britain is one of the 60 volunteers who have joined the campaign to rebuild Palestinian homes. This year they are building two.

"There is clearly to my mind a clear ethnic cleansing being conducted by the state of Israel in flagrant denial of international humanitarian law and international law," he said.

"I have no doubt that in five or six months' time they'll be rubble again like we're standing on. We have to keep doing this. We'll come back and we'll rebuild it again."

Mr Sbaih's house is just one of thousands of homes slated for demolition in East Jerusalem.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/13/2655353.htm