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“The
situation in which we are living didn’t start on the 29th
of March, it started 20 months
ago. The
only thing we see is blood, suicide bombers, and bullets. Our people
fight day
by day to
protect our land and our country. Each one of us can give a personal
account
as to what
is happening. No one living abroad can understand what we have to
live
through. I
work at the University of Birzeit and never before have I seen as
much violence
as I have
seen during the second Intifada.
The current
crisis didn’t start with Sharon. It began with Barak, but Sharon is
the
barbarian,
and yet an intelligent man, who knows what he wants.
In Ramallah
alone, there are 64 checkpoints. What happened on March 29th
was
pre-planned
as before the 29th we saw tanks moving from one place to
another.
Before
Israel started with this operation, there were already 27,000
wounded and 1,400
martyrs,
aged between 15-17. We stayed 10 days without food, medicine,
electricity and
water. What
they did was more than vandalism!!
Sharon
thought very well about what to do and the operation had three
parts:
First, the
destruction of our houses, roads, buildings… this produces more
refugees and
homeless
people. There is loss of life, loss of personal property.
Second, the
destruction of governmental organizations- they [Israelis] destroyed
important
data and papers such as deeds of property, schools, municipality
infrastructures and databases.
Third, the
destruction of cultural organizations- no more theaters, museums,
cinemas,
the youth
and elders don’t have any more places to go and pass the time.
They
destroyed the Ministry of Education. They took all the computers and
burnt all the
paperwork
and equipment. My husband’s office [Mustafa Barghoti] doesn’t exist
any
more.
To get to
the university, we have to walk 6 or 7 kilometers everyday. We watch
how they
arrest our
students and they keep them in the streets for many hours. Now, our
children
know very
well which kinds of helicopters and weaponry the Israelis are using.
I take my
children to
school in an atmosphere of bullets. I have no other choice. I don’t
want to
leave our
country, and I can’t keep the children home, they have to study. At
the
beginning
we used to cry, but not any more, we have to defend our country.”
Explained to
Jerusalem
Forum Rita Barghouti.
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