 in the press PA men storm home of UK employee of Bir Zeit
Nigel Parry, 29, who has been working since 1994 in the university's public affairs department and deals with Bir Zeit's Internet sites, said he received a phone call at his office at 5 p.m. on Monday that his apartment had been demolished. Parry said he arrived home to find his belongings and those of another occupant in the garden. Parry said all the windows and doors were smashed and the roof and wall of his bedroom were demolished. "Every single window in the house was smashed," he said. "Everything I own had been thrown into the garden. I've lived in this house for three years." Among those seen demolishing Parry's home were several members of the Palestinian Preventive Security Apparatus, human rights activists said. Adam Hanieh, a volunteer for the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, called the attack outrageous. "I never thought I would arrive back in Ramallah, where I live," Hanieh said, "to find the Palestinian security forces destroying a house inhabited by Palestinians and an international who has worked so much for the rights of the Palestinian people," he said. A PPS officer in Ramallah referred questions to commander Zakaria Muslih Tarifi, who could not be reached for comment. Kifah Fani, another occupant of the house, was attacked by up to 10 people when he tried to stop the destruction. He was taken to the hospital where he received four stitches in the forehead. Parry said for the past year he has been in a dispute with the building's owner, who has wanted to sell the house. He said most of these disputes are settled through compensation to the evicted tenant. "But because I am not a Palestinian," Parry said, "and because law isn't respected here, my landlady assumed that I would not have the protective community support, which determines everything here. So, she ordered my house to be bulldozed by thugs." Bassam Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitor-ing Group, said the PPS agents were apparently hired by the landlord, identified as Madiha Nussei-beh, to "frighten the tenants and force them to evacuate." Hanan Elsamu, coordinator of Bir Zeit's Human Rights Action Pro-ject, said this sets a precedent. "I've never heard of Palestinians demolishing an individual's home in the West Bank, especially not the house of an international working for a highly respected Palestinian organization," he said. Parry and the others who live in the house slept in their garden Monday night. "We're now rebuilding the walls," he said last night. In a statement, Eid's group called on the PA to end such attacks. "These aggressions put into question the ability of the Palestinian people to create a democratic system based on the rule of law," it read. 
more from this section  • Pittsburgh's Mellon Green finally unoccupied, Bill Vidonic, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Thursday, February 9th, 2012  • The revolution will be televised, streamed and uploaded, Amanda Lin Costa, European Journalism Centre, Thursday, January 26th, 2012 • Living our Lives project: Nigel Parry, Patrick Young, LivingOurLives.net, Friday, January 13th, 2012 • 'It's All Political': Eviction and Arrests of Global Revolution Livestreamers Part of Pattern of Crackdowns on Alternative Living, Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet, Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 • Occupy Livestream Operators Will Be Homeless After They Get Out of Jail, Adam Martin, The Atlantic Wire, Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 • Off the grid: Occupy Pittsburgh gets charged up the natural way, Darlene White Natale, Point Park News Service, Sunday, November 6th, 2011 • #OccupyPGH Day 1: Interview with Global Revolution's Nigel Parry, Eric Byler, Coffee Party, Saturday, October 15th, 2011 • Facts and myths in the WikiLeaks/Guardian saga, Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, Friday, September 2nd, 2011 |
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