One Step Ahead Of The Bulldozer

[Violet_Crumble]

By Amira Hass
21 May, 2004
Haaretz

RAFAH - Palestinian families who live close to the Egyptian border learned the lesson years ago: They keep small bags filled with important documents, some cash and a few sentimental items always ready. Whenever bulldozers plowed toward them, or whenever tank shells crashed nearby, or whenever helicopters hovered above - as happened as recently as May 12 - they grabbed their bags and fled.

But, feeling secure in a relatively quiet part of oft-battered Rafah, members of Wa'il Mansur's family, like those of his parents, grandparents and neighbors, never bothered to pack such bags. They live in the Brazil neighborhood, some 700 meters from the border. A few rows of houses used to stand between their residence and the border. Two such rows have already been razed. Nonetheless, members of Mansur's family reasoned that their residence was far enough from the border to be out of harm's way.

Then, at 8:30 A.M. yesterday, they relate, a huge bulldozer rumbled over neighbors' houses; neighborhood residents fled for their lives. Some ran in their bare feet. Others left behind identification documents, driver's licenses (Mansur is a taxi driver), money, clothes, books. The bulldozer crushed Mansur's cab; it also plowed up a small "zoo" that a neighborhood resident set up two years ago to amuse local kids.

Fortified Israel Defense Forces vehicles, supported by helicopters, set up shop in the Brazil neighborhood at 10 P.M. on Wednesday. Mansur's parents, together with 13 other people, live in a house with an asbestos roof. Mansur's own house, which holds 17 residents, is built of concrete and asbestos. Mansur feared for his loved ones' lives: A bullet could penetrate through the houses' flimsy walls and kill someone. And, fearing for their lives, "women and men and children" from both homes huddled in two rooms in Mansur's house Wednesday night, hoping that the IDF's Operation Rainbow would go somewhere else soon.

http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-hass210504.htm

[lefty_mcduff]

1. "Operation Rainbow"

More Orwellian double-speak.
Disgusting.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. They still don't beat the US operation names...

Operation Enduring Freedom has to be the silliest of all...


Found a cute random operation name generator that's kind of entertaining...

http://www.ftrain.com/cgi-bin/l_operation.cgi?num_ops=10

Violet...

[tinnypriv]

3. "Camp Redemption"

Otherwise known as Abu Ghraib.

[Gimel]

7. the actual name

Is rainbow in the clouds. It is shortened for media consumption. All war operation names are "Orwellian". He probably took the idea from the military.

[Classical_Liberal]

4. Asbestos

However this situation eventually resolves itself, it sounds like these shanty houses are biohazardous. What will happen to Palestinians and IDF soldiers that have to be around this stuff in the future?

[dArKeR]

5. Gaza's only zoo destroyed in Rafah raid

Gaza City - The Israeli army destroyed the only zoo in the Gaza Strip during its massive raid in Rafah, killing some animals and leaving others to roam free, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said on Friday.

The small private zoo, located in the Brazil neighbourhood of Rafah, was destroyed on Thursday by Israeli army bulldozers, the sources said.

Birds and goats were crushed in the rubble, but a monkey, a fox and several other goats escaped and were seen roaming through the devastated refugee camp on Friday, witnesses said.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1085136300119M323&set_id=1

[Classical_Liberal]

6. The most chilling part

At 7:30 A.M., when the women prepared breakfast, family members had hopes that it would be a normal day. But an hour later, all hell broke loose. Mansur recalls that he heard neighbors crying in fear and anguish. He says that he raced out to help them, only to find, to his amazement, that the bulldozer was already set to plow away his own home, and that of his grandparents. Mansur says: "I begged him to stop, to let us get out of the house. He blocked the entrance. Sitting behind glass, the driver never heard us ... We were just a second away from being killed - 50 persons, children, the elderly, women, all of us with our backs to the wall, with the bulldozer plowing toward us. The driver never heard us. The destruction happened quickly, faster than anything that could be said to stop it."

[Gimel]

8. More Orwellian

sob stories.