Friday, July 11, 2008

The grim logic of Jerusalem

He told me the story with resignation and not a word of hatred. His eyes only teared up when he explained how he had to pull his kids from school and tell them they could no longer play with their friends. Two years later, he wept again, holding my hand, when his brother's house was demolished, the standard punishment for adding floors without a municipal permit. Such permits are almost never granted. Wholesale demolition is a fate no Jewish house, for departing from a building code, will ever suffer.

1 Comments:

At 5:59 PM, Anonymous Emily Nghiem said...

I live in a national historic African American district next to downtown Houston, Texas. Houses and even churches have been demolished by the city, without investigation of the damages, arson, or other violations committed. I do compare the favoritism shown to hostile developers destroying historic landmarks, streets and even gravesites as living in the American civil version of the West Bank or Gaza. Where our geographic location is used to justify denial of our equal protection and rights as citizens and human beings to defend and protect our community from destruction by cultural genocide by political oppression.
I pray for the damage to stop, the conflicts to be resolved, and the healing and restoration for all such minorities communities suffering the same. Peace be unto all.

 

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