A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
A journalist in Jerusalem sent me this: "there was one unforgettable interview with a bulldozer operator who demolished the jenin camp in 2002. the guy was unemployed for over a year, was arrested over and over again for various misdemeanors, desperate, poor. he was recruited for his reserve duty. he sat in the bulldozer for 75 hours non-stop, demolishing the whole camp...he said: "the moment i got into the D9 i forgot all my troubles...as if i underwent a shift in my brain...my despair has disappeared. i went crazy. all i thought of were our soldiers who died. there were explosives everywhere. in the walls, in the roads, under the floors. but the bulldozer couldn't care less. it's an animal. more wild than a tank which has a soft stomach. i was not tired. i drank whisky all the time. i had a huge bottle with me. and some snacks..for 75 hours i didn't think of my problems at home, at work. for three days i just demolished house after house..." amazing account...only difference: this one got out of it alive and a "hero"...the jenin demolisher goes on and says: "i didn't see any people under the bulldozer...they ran out of the houses when we came...but even if they were people under the bulldozer, i couldn't care less. i'm sure people died in those houses i demolished but i didn't see them. there was lots of dust and we worked at night. i had great satisfaction from every house i pulled down. i knew they didn't mind dying. the houses meant more to them...my only pain is that we didn't manage to bulldoze the whole camp". the bulldozer unit, which was considered till jenin as a service unit, no glory and no fame, got a medal for it's work in jenin. the commander said in an interview: "till jenin we were considered those who did the dirty jobs...since jenin all that has changed. now they call us for every operation. the whole attitude towards us has changed...""