Israel Matzav

Beit Jala mansion used to fire on Gilo being restored

A Beit Jala mansion that was commandeered by Fatah terrorists ten years ago and used to fire on the Jewish suburb of Gilo is being restored by its absentee owner.

When the second intifada erupted in the autumn of 2000, the house was still bare on the inside and Abu Zgheibreh was away in Panama tending to his business interests.

Taking advantage of its strategic position, Fatah gunmen sneaked inside and began shooting at the homes in Gilo, just 800 meters away. At first they used their PA police-issue Kalashnikov AK-47 semiautomatics and stolen Israeli army M-16s, but they caught the Israelis unawares when one night they began firing with two heavy machine-guns – a belt-fed Browning M2 .50-caliber and a Russian-made BKC.

It was the first time that Jerusalem had come under sustained attack since the 1967 war. The IDF responded with tank shells and heavy machine-gun fire from three directions. The Israeli fire smashed in the roof, punched holes in the walls, destroyed many of the second-floor balconies and shattered most of the hand-carved stonework around the windows. An anti-sniper wall was hastily erected across the southern edge of Gilo to keep the residents safe. It was only taken down a few weeks ago.

For the residents of Beit Jala, the second intifada was a catastrophe. Most of the town’s original Christian inhabitants wanted no part in the uprising and its suicide bombings. Many of the residents had close personal and business ties in Jerusalem, which the intifada brought to an end.

Ghneim was one of those who lost his business as a result. “I have a quarry in Gilo, just over there,” he told AOL News, pointing at the nearby Israeli neighborhood.

“Now it’s forbidden for me to enter Jerusalem. I haven’t seen it for 10 years.”

Abu Atef, a leader of the Fatah shabab (youth) gunmen who later joined the Al- Aksa Martyrs Brigades, told AOL News that they actually stopped shooting from the house itself after a few days because it was too dangerous, but they managed to draw the returning Israeli fire back to the palace again and again. As a result, none of the gunmen were killed inside the house, although several were hit nearby. He said it became a rite of passage for the most daring gunmen to take their turn behind the M2. Among those who gained their spurs in the nightly gun battles were at least three members of the Abayat family, the shabab leaders. Two were later killed by the IDF. Another is serving several life sentences in an Israeli prison.

Several residents of Beit Jala were killed in the firefights sparked by the gunmen, but the neighbors always divided the blame between the IDF and the Fatah fighters who had invaded their quiet neighborhood.

“The first time we came to shoot, the neighbors were OK, but after their houses began to be damaged from the Israeli tanks, people became very angry and tried to push us to another area to shoot,” Abu Atef said. “They didn’t give us any help, not even a drink of water when the guys were thirsty. Even now they don’t like us.”

Will that prevent them from starting a new intifadeh? I'm afraid we may find out soon.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:44 PM