This piece was written by one of my Advanced English students in Nablus.
By MAHMOUD BSHARAT
This is what happened in 2003, during the Israeli-Palestinian classes (the second intifada).
My family and I were sleeping peacefully when we heard a very huge blast. Â All the neighbors woke up and started calling each other on the phone, fearful that war had started. Â Like all my neighbors, I opened the door to see what was going on. Â I was astonished to see a thick cloud of dust next to my neighbor’s house.
We were very scared when we saw soldiers clapping, laughing and shouting, “We succeeded, we succeeded!”
We tried to look through the windows, but the soldiers started shooting. Â We returned to our house in horror and waited until the withdrawal of the Israeli tanks and jeeps.
When they left, we went to see what happened. Â The disaster was enormous. Â The soldiers had demolished the neighbor’s house with explosives. Â Most of the neighors’ houses had been damaged, either wholly or partially. Â Only God prevented a true disaster, as all the surrounding houses were crowded and inhabited but the demolished house was empty.
My house is about 100 meters from the demolished house, but the intensity of the explosion threw the door of the neighboring home into my garden. Â Imagine what would have happened if someone was in the garden.
I will never forget that experience.
I will never forgive the occupation.
How frightening that experience was!
How cruel the occupation is!
I hope we get rid of the occupation as soon as possible.