A Tisha B’Av of Home Demolitions and Midnight Raids

Mahmoud Nawajaa and two of his children not long before the kids had to watch their dad dragged away, blindfolded and handcuffed, at 3 AM by Israeli soldiers

In the middle of the night, and in front of his three young children, Israeli forces raided the home of Mahmoud Nawajaa and arrested him. It was around 3 AM in Abu Qash, a small village near Ramallah when, according to Mahmoud’s wife, Ruba Alayan, “Around 50 soldiers were there. They broke the doors and the locks, and they covered Mahmoud’s eyes, handcuffed him, and also took his computer and some personal effects.”

Nawajaa is the General Coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee. Alayan said their children “…woke up and they were terrified. We were all surprised by what happened, there was no reason for it and none of us expected it.”

Imagine what those children felt, watching their father being taken away by soldiers in the dead of night. Bear it in mind the next time you hear an Israeli leader or their supporters in the United States complain about Palestinian “incitement.” Ask yourself whether, after that traumatic experience, these children, all under ten years of age, will need any further “incitement” to hate Israelis.

Nawajaa was one of at least 17 Palestinians detained in raids Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

As it happens, Wednesday night and Thursday are the 9th day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar, the holiday of Tisha B’Av. It is the…