Palestinian Town Destroyed,
11 Killed, To Make Way For Poignant New Holocaust Memorial
Fierce fighting erupted on the edge
of the Gaza Strip today as Israeli troops
seized the small Palestinian town
of Jeheb which occupies land designated as
the site of a new, highly poignant
and moving Holocaust memorial and
educational centre.
Helicopter gunships strafed the area
with cannon fire before tanks and infantry
were deployed. There was little
initial resistance from the Palestinians, most of
whom fled the area, but armed Palestinian
police did launch a counterattack.
Reports say eleven Palestinians
including a 14 year-old male were killed and
three Israeli soldiers were wounded
in the ensuing gun battle. Israeli security
forces arrested the few civilians
that remained in the town and charged them
with illegal loitering before workers
began demolishing buildings in preparation
for the construction of the centre,
which designers hope will be "a beacon of
hope and inspiration for persecuted
people all over the world."
"We must never forget what happened
to our people," said project coordinator
Sara Isaacs shortly before ordering
bulldozers to knock down the first row of
houses. "This centre will be a permanent
reminder to the world of man's
inhumanity to man."
These angry men will soon be
replaced by an interactive 'digital history' interface station.
The centre is expected to take a
year to construct and will be the largest of its
kind in the world. Isaacs described
some of the planned exhibits: "You see where
that dead body is? Well that's where
the interactive 'multimedia memory point'
will be. This will enable visitors
to access a 3D digital recreation of the
Auschwitz concentration camp, which
will be accompanied by realtime
narration from actual camp survivors,"
she explained. "It's a tremendously
exciting project."
(c) urbanreflex.com 2001