Community Voices
Imm Amin from Abu Dis
Personal Testimony, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, February 4th, 2004

In September, when construction for the Apartheid Wall began in Abu Dis, people living closest to the area of destruction for the Wall continuously resisted its ravaging work. The women and there children from three homes would arrive to the lands being confiscated each day and try to stop the bulldozers, sitting in front of the machines’ unyielding path. After the first time, the Occupation soldiers surrounded their homes in order to prevent the people from reaching their land. A resident in Abu Dis states, “No one but the women did anything when the Wall began…the old fatima (Imm Amin) is the best one who can tell you what happened when they started building the Wall.”

Above: The hole torn into Imm Amin’s land, Abu Dis, Jerusalem, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

Imm Amin, and the forty members of her family who are the closest to the Wall’s path, refused to accept this and were determined to defy the Occupation’s theft of her land. She and her two eldest sons, who are married with children, continued to reach their land and sit in front of the bulldozers for three days. On the last day, when the soldiers were beating one of Imm Amin’s sons while they sat in front of the bulldozers, Abu Nabil, her second-cousin was trying to stop the soldiers when he fell down. He was forced to remain under the sun all day with his injury, as the military prevented people from assisting them or bringing them water in the area, he died later that night from a heat-attack.

The following are excerpts of the resistance as told by Imm Amin’s neighbor and herself.

Imm Amin’s Neighbor

“Only the women went to protest, it was us women from our houses. The Occupation Forces began shooting tear gas at us, so we went back. The next time wanted to go the military was surrounding all the houses. We weren’t able to reach the land and support Imm Amin while she was sitting in front of the bulldozers. They did not even let us bring her water. A relative of hers died on the same day, he had to stay in the sun all day trying to stop the bulldozers from destroying the land. The man was doing nothing—he was just trying to pull his Imm Amin’s sons from the hands of the soldiers who were hitting the boy. While he was trying to do this, he fell down as he had a problem in his leg. The same night he had a heart attack and died. The military surround the entire area during the entire period before the finished the Wall in this area. The soldiers were standing in my home, searching everyone who was going in and out…”

Imm Amin

“When the military came, my two sons the sons of my brother-in-law, and Abu Nabil, who later died, went down to the land where they were working. It was only us…there is nothing left of my land—only this minimal piece between us and the Wall. The first day, the military kept coming and going to our house. I told them this is my land. In the evening, the Occupation Forces came and tried to take my son and his cousin; but we managed to pull them from the hands of the soldiers. The second day, I tried with my two sons to go to the land, on that day they tried to handcuff my son and stop us from reaching the land, but my son managed to escape. Yet the soldiers hit many of the boys.

I tried to argue with the soldiers and told them, ‘This is my land—what you are doing is illegal. There are 40 people living in this house and on this land.’ The Occupation Forces then came and began bulldozing, here they work every day. I had land in the middle of this hill…it was destroyed by the bulldozer. We sat on the land for three days, morning to evening, until the soldiers surrounded the whole neighborhood and we were no longer able to reach then lands.”

Above: Imm Amin and her neighbors, Abu Dis, Jerusalem, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.