IN STEREO

And of course, anyone who builds either in Ein Jweiza or here, they come and demolish it. The [Israeli] Civil Administration demolish it here and Jerusalem’s municipality demolish it there. I mean, a house of mine was demolished. I’m telling you, I was the first house in Al-Walaja to be demolished. Sometimes [they do it] without notice. And even if they gave you notice, they don’t wait the duration that they’ve given to you. The first house of mine that was demolished was in ‘85 [during] the martial law. At that time, there were the villages’ leagues, so they put their hand in more. This was when the world recognised the [Palestinian] Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people.

In order to cut the path, the Jewish-Israelis made villages’ leagues, who were representatives. And those responsible for them, they had a place in Bethlehem. A body against the Liberation Organization, let’s say. You understand how it was? From here, several problems happened between people. The Jewish-Israelis started to pressure people so that they accept this body that they put against the Liberation Organization, so that it wasn’t the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. They tried to pressure people with their arrests, house demolitions… People told me go to drink coffee with them and [my] house wouldn’t be demolished. I said, “No, my house can be demolished.” – Abu Fadi