Umcamal

On my second day in Palestine, my Swedish roommates found a flier informing people of a Palestinian woman who had been kicked out of her home by Israeli Authorities. They asked me if I wanted to join them while they investigated the occurrence and of course I was on board. We found Umcamal, the elderly Palestinian woman living in a tent in an area on the side of the road. She was there with a friend and a few men from the area who were trying to help her with her situation. After originally being kicked out of her house in November 2008, she had been living in tents in an area near by. According to her translator, since then the Israeli Authority had demolished 5 of the 6 tents she'd occupied. When she was kicked out of her original residence, during the process her husband was thrown from his wheelchair by the Israeli guards and no one was allowed to reach him to supply medical assistance until 10 hours after the event. Her already sick husband died of a heart attack two days later. According to her story, they had been living in that house for decades. The Israeli government wanted her land (a smaller part of the grander scheme to take back all of Jerusalem and make it solely Israeli) and offered her a large sum of money for her house. When the family refused to move, the Israeli government told them they had no legal right to be there, took the house and boarded it up by force. After the fact, Umcamal was offered money by the Israeli government to live elsewhere and was given other offers from friends and family. She has no intention of moving. She says this is her home and this is where she will stay.
This presents an interesting situation. Technically, the Israeli government is the occupying force and they possess the legal right to remove Umcamal's family in that they had no legal documents stating their right to the land. On the other hand, this is a region where Israel both makes and breaks the rules according to how Israel benefits most. The more I talk to people, both Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, and Jews, the more clear it becomes that all sides (as it is much more complicated than just Israeli and Palestinian) are using methods that are detrimental not only to who they think they are fighting, but to themselves.
Another point worth mentioning is how incidents and events are explained in this culture. In the western world we rely on facts and details to piece a story together little by little. We feel this gives us a more accurate picture. That ceases to be the case in Israel and Palestine. To this culture it is about the big picture and facts and details that compose smaller parts of the whole are not readily brought to the table when an event is being rehashed. One as to ask for these details.
I kept asking the man who was translating Umcamal's story about the specific facts involved. He would answer, but sometimes answers would be inconsistent. I assume this was partly due to the language barrier and a lack of understanding for what I was really going for, but there also seemed to be inconsistencies in the story as well. At one point I had to explain to him why my questions were important for what I was trying to accomplish because it was apparent he did not comprehend why I was occupying so much time with the nature of the questions I was asking.
After being shown Umcamal's old house, now boarded up (the event is documented in picture form under East Jerusalem) we visited a few other homes that were said to be evacuated by May 17th. The families were all very hospitable, offering tea and refreshments, and anxious to tell their stories. Two other Swedish girls (also in the East Jerusalem slide show) were living with the families and standing guard at night so as to warn the neighborhood if there were any suspicious activities.