From: "Zahi Damuni" <zdamuni-AT-email.msn.com>
Subject: A mini-pogrom in Tul Karm
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 06:51:45 -0400


A mini-pogrom in Tul Karm
By Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz, Sunday, April 18, 1999

I hadn't seen anything like it in the territories for a long time: household
utensils, telephones, a computer, furniture, electrical appliances, pictures
and more all scattered across the floor and smashed to pieces. Among the
wreckage was a defaced copy of the Koran. The air conditioner on the wall
had been damaged, the clock smashed, potted plants upended, wardrobes
wrecked, the electricity generator destroyed, doors ripped off their hinges
and sacks of valuable seeds ripped apart and their contents spilled
everywhere, turned into veritable seeds of destruction.It happened last
Wednesday in the Kadan family's plant nursery, the largest of its kind on
the West Bank, on the border separating Tul Karm and Shweia, opposite the
milestone that demarcates the change from Area A to Area B. The members of
this well-off family are considered to be "good Arabs": They trade a lot
with Israel and have not a few friends in the country.

The forces arrived at dawn: At about 3:30 A.M., Basam Kadan was startled
awake by the noise of the gates being torn down. Basam has six daughters and
a 3-month-old son, and they too were awoken by the kicking on the doors. The
soldiers and the police forcibly entered the area of the nursery and then
Basam's house. The signs of the forced entry are apparent on every door.

Armed with hammers, they smashed everything they could reach. A picture of
the late head of the family, Badia Kadan, who was president of the Tul Karm
Chamber of Commerce for 16 years and who died just a year ago, hangs smashed
upon the wall. The family's Subaru that was parked in the yard has been
wrecked beyond recognition: All four tires have been ripped with knives, its
rear window and headlights smashed to smithereens. In the late father's
bedroom in the elegant family wing of the house, drawers have been broken
into: The brothers complain that $6,000 was hidden there by their mother,
who had just returned from heart surgery in Jordan. The money disappeared
during this nighttime visit. Basam complains that he was hit during the
attack.

Who was responsible? Basam Kadan claims they were soldiers. The IDF
spokesman was quick to point out that this was an action undertaken to find
disassembly plants for stolen cars, and that the police were therefore
responsible. There were only four or five soldiers attached to the force and
they were not involved, explained the spokesman. The spokesman for the
Samaria and Judea District Police, Rafi Yaffe, tried at first to deny the
whole story: He had checked and found that the police had no information
concerning any such incident. As was once the fashion, he tried to imply
that perhaps the Palestinians themselves were involved. A few hours later,
though, he changed his mind: The commander of the Kedum police station, Hai
Yitzhak, visited the area and discovered, according to the spokesman, that
"a certain amount of damage had been done to the nursery. We take this
matter very seriously. We will undertake an inquiry and those responsible
will be put on trial."

So the bad old days are back. A police force that was searching for a stolen
vehicle disassembly plant - which is actually to be found not far away -
went and vented its anger on the homes of innocent civilians. The police
destroyed simply for destruction's sake, with no operational or other goal
to justify their actions. They were only Arabs, after all, so the police
were entitled to do what they like, to ruin and to destroy, to beat and to
injure, to vent their frustration or simply have fun in the night.

Severe financial damage was caused to the Kadan family: Their friend, Baruch
Yogev, who owns an Israeli seed company, explained at the week end that the
cost of a single kilogram of the seeds that were scattered and destroyed
during the vandals' attack can range as high as $20,000 or $25,000. It would
seem that the family will survive the economic setback. It is far more
difficult to tell how they will survive the burden of degradation and fear
that the police planted in their Tul Karm night of violence. What will the
Kadan children remember from that night? How will their parents explain to
them what happened? What message will they carry with them, and why did they
deserve this treatment? Was it merely because they are Palestinians?

And this is us as well: A country that sends its finest doctors to build a
field hospital in Kosovo and help a persecuted national minority, also sends
its police to sow cruel destruction and violence in the homes of innocent
civilians, who are also members of a conquered and persecuted people

© copyright 1999 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved













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