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Ma'alot mayor bans school visit to '48 bombing victim's home By Jack Khoury Haaretz 04 October 2004 Is a tour to the home of an elderly resident of Tarshiha whose house was bombed by the Israel Defense Forces in 1948 an educational outing for pupils on the history of the community, or perhaps a hostile political activity and an attempt to brainwash young children? The residents of the mixed town of Ma'alot-Tarshiha are up in arms on this question, which arose after Mayor Shlomo Buhbut stepped in to cancel a program initiated by the local parents committee. Studies at the school were suspended; and Buhbut, a resident of Ma'alot, and his deputy, Nahala Tanus, from Tarshiha, confronted each other and exchanged accusations, with the former freezing the powers of his deputy, and the latter threatening to resign. "The activity is tantamount to brainwashing the young children and poisoning their thoughts with regard to the future," Buhbut said, noting that he intervened to stop the tour in the wake of requests from the Education Ministry and the Shin Bet security service. "Why can Ma'alot conduct activities on the history of the place and its roots, but it's forbidden to do so in Tarshiha?" Tanus countered. In 1948, on the morning October 28, 1948, Fatma Hawari, 18 at the time, was in her family home in Tarshiha, together with another 15 women and children. Her parents and two brothers spent the night in a field far from the house. The mood in the village (and the entire area) was one of uncertainty, and many residents had fled in the direction of Lebanon. But Hawari and her family decided to remain at home, and the house was bombed and completely destroyed by Israeli planes. Hawari was the only survivor of the blast and ensuing blaze. She was injured and underwent a series of back operations in Beirut, but remains paralyzed in a wheelchair. Hawari lives in Tarshiha today, and has told her story dozens of times - in detail and with much pain and anger. In the eyes of the Tarshiha residents, Hawari is an integral part of the community's history. Last week, she consented to a request from the parents committee at Tarshiha's junior school and the management of the town's community center, agreeing to allow her house to serve as one of the stops on a tour designed to teach the children about the history of the town. The visit to her house was planned for Thursday, October 28 - exactly 56 years after she lost her family in the aerial bombing. The parents committee's plans, however, were nipped in the bud by Buhbut, who claimed the activity was of an improper political nature and constituted brainwashing. Last Wednesday, Buhbut sent a letter to Tanus informing him of the cancelation, and accusing the organizers of trying to undermine the coexistence between the towns. The parents committee responded by calling a general strike, which took place last Thursday, and the community center management resigned their positions. The next day, hundreds of the towns residents and their children assembled for a discussion on the history of the community. ---------------------------- w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m /hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=497290
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