Hi,
Not the big explosions of the buildings, done by engineering corps, makes you stop and think why are we doing it, and if it is the correct way of dealing with the situation. But instead those are the small items that makes you stop and think about the life of the people that lives here (or used to live here) and why we are here.
It was a white watch in between the rebels that made stop and think about it. There is nothing special about that watch, and most chances I would have pass over it like some many other items and things that spread all over them and we just walk over them. Not thinking about who owned them and what happened to them.
Back when I was a training basic Sargent we were sent to help evacuate the settlement of Netzarim. We were walking in a straight line looking for personal items between what was left of the building of the settlers used to live there. The idea was to prevent the pictures of the items in the hands of the Palestinians to show how the settlers run away.
There it was a small teddy bear that I found between the ruins of the building that made me stop there on the spot and think about the lives of the people that were evacuated from this place. I picked it up along with the rest of the personal items left behind.
The settlement of Netzarim used to stand on the same area we are know standing on. Those houses the Engineering corps explode, were built on top of the houses we demolished on the Israeli disengagement from Gaza on 2005. And here I am again, standing on ruins of empty houses, looking on people private and personal items as they run away and their house been demolished.
Take Care
Gad
A building we were steeping into, to catch positions
The rubbish and ruins left on the steps of the building we walked into
The white watch on the steps of the house