Sunday, March 22, 2009

Aftermath: The Writings on the Walls

Photo: (c) Kent Klich

PHRC, March 18, 2009 - The Palestine Human Rights Center in Gaza has been publishing a series of testimonies about how Palestinians in Gaza are coping in the aftermath of the war. In this, the fifth in the series, homeowners describe some of the graffiti they found Israeli soldiers had scrawled on the walls of their homes when they returned.

Alongside the 1,000s of homes partially or completely destroyed by bulldozers, tank shells and bombs dropped by F-16 fighter jets, are the homes that have been defaced by graffiti left by individual Israeli soldiers and the vandalisation of civilian property within them.

At Mos’ab Dardona’s home in Jabal Al Rayes, northeast Gaza, Israeli soldiers who had taken up positions in civilian houses in the area left behind intricate drawings on the walls, some depicting soldiers urinating on toppled mosques, or devouring Palestinian villages. In the house next door, belonging to Ibrahim Dardona, soldiers left behind dozens of bags of faeces in the bedrooms, despite the presence of a functioning toilet,and left rude sexual diagrams on the walls.

“The writing left by Israeli soldiers in the homes in Gaza provides an insight into the disturbing culture of hatred and racism towards Palestinians and Arabs which exists among parts of Israeli society,” says Hamdi Shaqqura, PCHR’s director of democratic development. “In light of the evidence PCHR has gathered of the wilful and wanton killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, this graffiti is even more disturbing.”...

The complete series of testimonies is available here.

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