Maree Makom

Mound
The structure upon which the kid is leaning has
already been deser ted for almost a year. Yet it
seems, for some reason, that something in there is
moving, tumbling down. He will turn back for a
moment, his hands still resting on a narrow shelf
cutting horizontally across the bottom plane of the
cement house, and then will resume staring at the
group gathered about twenty meters in front of
him, deaf, like the mute image, to the conversation
taking place there first in Arabic, then in Hebrew,
and in which again so little of the pretext for
destruction is clarified. Wedged minuscule and
precise, like a nail, amidst the almost imperceptible
motion of the walls collapsing behind him, the
earth dropping under his feet, he is fixed at the
center of a picture of an abandoned building,
ripped open, stooped on a piece of land cracked
from thirst.
Video Recording Site
Demolished house at the outskirts of Al-Khalil
18,000 Palestinian homes have been
destroyed by Israel since 1967. The IDF carries
out three types of house demolitions: “Clearing
operations,” which are intended to meet
what Israel defines as “military needs;”
Administrative demolitions of houses built
without a permit; and house demolitions
intended to punish the relatives and neighbors
of Palestinians who carried out or are
suspected of involvement in attacks against
Israeli civilians or soldiers 1 .
Video Recording Occasion
1998. Production of a video piece by L. and R.
The majority of the scenes are shot in
Deheishe, a refugee camp, and in demolished
homes or homes about to be demolished in
the vicinity of Al-Khalil.
Participants
Anonymous
H. - A resident of Al-Khalil and an Al-Khalil
municipality engineer, who is aiding the two
women in the making of their piece
Demolished home owner’s son
L. - An Israeli videographer residing in Tel Aviv
R. - An Israeli writer living in Jerusalem
1. Through No Fault of Their Own,Nov. 15, 2004,
B’Tselem Publications