{"id":26087,"date":"2023-04-24T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=26087"},"modified":"2023-04-26T17:37:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T15:37:54","slug":"nurredin-amros-epic-battle-to-save-his-home-from-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/nurredin-amros-epic-battle-to-save-his-home-from-demolition\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurredin Amro’s Epic Battle to Save His Home From Demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opinions published in The Markaz Review reflect the perspective of their authors
\nand do not necessarily represent TMR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The writer’s Palestinian friend, a blind school principal, has resisted eight years of Israeli efforts to drive his family out of Jerusalem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The demolition of Palestinian homes and lives is not a humanitarian tragedy, like an earthquake or tsunami, but a policy of apartheid in the service of ethnic cleansing. The campaign against Nurredin is part of a long-term, systematic, multipronged process of forced displacement and transfer \u2014 crimes against humanity. Israeli officials don\u2019t hide this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nora Lester Murad<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

My friend, Nurredin Amro, his extended family and their entire neighborhood are on a list: their homes in East Jerusalem are targeted for demolition by the Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n

Ethnic cleansing is not just the moment of violence when a family is uprooted, or a neighborhood emptied. As I\u2019ve watched Nurredin experience it, demolition is a slow, confusing, and surreal process of breaking people \u2014 and resisting it is a tiring battle requiring heroic levels of energy, patience and hope plus support from justice-minded people around the world.<\/p>\n

When I tell people Nurredin\u2019s story, they doubt my claim that one family could withstand such cruelty for so long and stand up against the entire Israeli government apparatus. But Nurredin has, and so have tens of thousands of Palestinians who with their steadfastness, their sumud, thwart Israel\u2019s ongoing colonial project. Their stories are important.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nurredin, Nabiha, Abed and Aseel Amro cleaning freshly picked olives. November 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I first met Nurredin in Jordan at a gathering of the Arab World Social Innovators, a program of the New York-based Synergos Institute. Nurredin has been recognized by Synergos, Ashoka, the British Council and others for his trailblazing work advocating for education for children with disabilities. Wherever Nurredin went, there was always a crowd gathered around him laughing at his jokes. That was in 2010, the same year that Nurredin, blind since birth, ran in the New York Marathon.<\/p>\n

\"Nurredin<\/a>

Nurredin (center) on a hike with the Synergos Institute near the Dead Sea in Jordan. 2010 (photo: Nora Lester Murad).<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Nurredin<\/a>

Nurredin reaching the half-marathon point on the Pulaski Bridge, going into Queens in the New York City Marathon. 2010 (photo Siraj al-Quds school website).<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

I was living in Jerusalem at the time, and I became a supporter<\/a> of Siraj al-Quds School and Society for the Blind<\/a>, a place for inclusive education that Nurredin founded in 2007, and where he is the director. It was clear to anyone who visited the school that Nurredin\u2019s leadership and love uplifted the lives of hundreds of Palestinian children and families, many who live in poverty, victimized by violence and suffering multiple disabilities.<\/p>\n

Nurredin\u2019s heroic work on behalf of these children and families is an example of the critical grassroots community support that helps Palestinians in Jerusalem resist the relentless efforts of the Israeli government to make Jerusalem unlivable for Palestinians, so they can maintain a Jewish majority<\/a> in accordance with their municipal plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Children at Sir al-Quds school. September 2013. (photo Nora Lester Murad)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As if it weren\u2019t enough running a Palestinian school in the very challenging context of Israeli control over East Jerusalem, in 2015 Nurredin\u2019s house in the as-Sawanna valley between the Old City of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives was partially demolished. The police admitted to neighbors they had no permit for the demolition, and the home was built legally. (Palestinians in East Jerusalem are often forced to build their homes without Israeli permits because they are so infrequently granted.)<\/p>\n