Posted on 08/12/2003 2:33:59 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker
Raed Zeid, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy from the village of Toura al-Sharqeya,
west of the northern West Bank town of Jenin, used to carry his schoolbag and
walk to the adjacent village of Nazlet Zeid, where his elementary school is
located. He ignored Israeli bulldozers and workers building the security fence
between the West Bank and Israel.
Every day, he crossed on foot vast areas of land that were being leveled and
razed by the Israeli army, and passed Israeli army machinery. He was
indifferent to what was happening.
One cool, sunny morning, Raed left his home as usual and started his morning
walk to school, but when he returned, there was a big fence separating him from
the solitary house that was built in line with the Jewish settlement of Shakid.
Despite U.S. opposition to the security wall, Israel has continued to build it
between the West Bank and Gaza. The wall is not situated on the 1967 borders
between the occupied territories and Israel; it has been constructed where a
vast area of Palestinian property has been confiscated and villages isolated
from the Palestinian community.
That day, Raed did not know what to do. He searched for a gap in the fence, but
there was not even enough space for a cat to cross. He grabbed the fence with
his small hands and shook it as hard as he could, but still it was there and
his home unreachable.
Nael Zeid, Raed's father, said that discovering the fence left a psychological
impact on his child. He has lost concentration in class, and fear crosses his
face when he sees armored vehicles and Israeli troops working on the fence.
Although the roots of the family's suffering go back to 1982 when the Shakid
settlement was built near their house, Raed's father said the situation has
become worse with the arrival of the security fence.
“If you looked from an upper area down at the fence, it would look like a huge
snake several kilometers long that suffocates the area of Jenin from the east,
west and north,” Nael Zeid said.
Jenin residents say that in addition to restricting the villagers' movements,
the fence has caused damage to the already-weak water and electricity
infrastructure.
Israel believes that building such a barrier will prevent Palestinian militants
from infiltrating into Israel to carry out armed and suicide-bombing attacks.
“The wall had closed the main road that links us with the outside world,” Nael
Zaed said. “We remained isolated in a small area within the green line between
Israel and the West Bank and the settlement of Shakid."
Palestinians believe the security fence was primarily built to confiscate more
land, blackmail Palestinians, and establish factors on the ground that would
make it difficult in the future to reach a permanent peaceful solution to the
conflict.
“I don't think that Raed could ever forget what happened to him that day, he
was so relieved to find a gate through which he could get back home. But he was
so scared that he cried and he was frightened of going out again and not being
able to return home,” Nael Zeid said.
He said the Israeli army constructed the fence overnight in advance of the
construction of a wall that is supposed to protect Jewish settlers from
neighboring Palestinians.
The fence, however, wasn't constructed around the settlements or according to
the so-called green line that separates Israel and the Palestinian Authority,
but was built about 5 kilometers (3 miles) east of the line.
Tarek Qabha, mayor of Toura village, said the trouble started when the Israeli
army began establishing the Jewish settlement of Shakid in 1982, and extensive
lands were confiscated from the western area of the village to construct it.
“They established this settlement on the villagers' lands, and now this
separation wall absorbs a big part of what was left, and they say that they
have to take this land in order to feel safer,” he said.
Qabha said that many families have lost their main source of income with the
confiscation of lands where they used to plant olives and vegetables.
“The wall was not established for security reasons -- this is just a
premeditated plan to take as much land as they possibly can,” Qabha said.
“This wall is 3 kilometers long and 80 meters wide, and snakes through the
village as if to suffocate us. The Israeli army had declared this whole area a
closed military zone. How can anyone live if there is no source for livelihood
and nowhere to go?"
The builders of the wall have bulldozed hundreds of square kilometers of
Palestinian-owned lands in Toura, uprooting more than 300 olive trees years,
and destroying fields of tobacco. Many local farmers no longer have access to
their cultivated lands after the Israeli army declared the area a closed
military zone.
“The wall has not only affected farmers, it disconnected the social relations
between families in the scattered villages inside and outside the wall,” said
Qabaha.
He said the wall in Berlin was 4 meters high, “but the wall in the Palestinian
territories is 8 meters high.
“The Berlin wall was removed and the Germans enjoy freedom. We hope that this
wall would be removed one day and the Palestinians would live free in their
independent Palestinian state,” said the mayor.
Why I remember when I was a schoolboy, I used to walk from New York City to Baltimore every morning at 7. Sometimes I was late because I would stop for breakfast in Philadelphia.
So did my husband--except he was barefoot, walking in daily blizzards alternating with ice storms, tornados and hurricanes.
Yeah, like maybe their intended homeland, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
There you have it. The mere existence of Jews causes these ignorant towel heads to 'suffer'. I hope they suffer a lot worse.
We need a wall like this around the entire Muslim world.
-ccm
And a roof! And a really, really solid floor.
What wrecked it? Politics. Militant politics fueled by radical Wahhabism. Trust the propagandists to blame anyone and everyone except their own horrendous attacks.
Blatant propaganda. Yep, and I don't exactly trust anyone with 'Ramadan' in their name.

I used this episode to teach my 8 year old about how different social/moral/value systems operate.
Well, imagine how the KKK would feel if a "n-gger" were elected mayor of Atlanta? Imagine the hurt pride, the offense of having a lower life form just walking around doing things that only the Master Race should be allowed to do! Of course they're suffering! Those dhimmis don't know their place at all!
Isn't it amazing how our local lefties have embraced people with the mentality of the Klan? And they don't even see it.
And unfortunately some right here on FR as do well. ...Although most have been given the boot, now confined to spewing their drivel on other boards.
After all the Jews have been driven into the sea.
Once you know the new definitions of old reliable words, it is all clear and quite simple, really.
Sometimes I wish we lived in the bearded spock universe. They had a VERY short way with people that defied them and attempted to subvert them; like sterilization of planets full of lefty retards.
Golda Mieir
wellll.....if it was Suicide Bombing 101, I guess he just might screw it up and only kill himself.
honestly....there were SO MANY lines in this bogus article that require comments...like:
the fence left a psychological impact on his child.
and bombing a busload of Israeli citizens or flying huge jetliners into US buildings makes these people dance in the street? Oh, dear....I'm so worried about this fence's "psychological impact" on the little ones. (not!)
Waaaaahhhhh Waaaaaahhhhh.
Cause and effect are pushed down one slot with this view. i.e. the fence is the cause and the damage is the effect.
Well what about moving back one step and seeing the fence as a effect? Can the Palestinians even think of a possible effect? Can they even spell the word terrorism?
Luckily for Raed (and his father), he doesn't have to ride a bus:

but, then, there really is no psychological trauma like having a wall pop out of the ground overnight (/sarcasm)
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