Raidh Abueid stands at the demolition site of his home. Photo by Rosalina Nieves.

Reporting from Lod, Israel - As a resident of greater Los Angeles, I might not have felt the weight of the planned March 15 Arab youth rallies in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza if I had not been in Israel this week.

I met a Palestinian man, Raidh Abueid, who lives in the mixed Arab and Jewish city of Lod. His house, along with those of six extended family members, was demolished in December 2010—leaving 50 people homeless.

Bathaima Dabit is a housing rights activist with the Shatil organization. She said the Israeli government deemed the homes in Lod illegal because the residents lack building permits and subsequently issued 1,400 demolition orders. To date, roughly 420 houses have been demolished. Dabit said plans for the area include agriculture and a new road.

“The message of the bulldozing is oppression,” Dabit said. “and that the Arabs are not welcome here…it is an ongoing nakba (catastrophe) for us.”

Abueid and his family still live on their property in tents. He believes the government is putting pressure on the Arabs in the area because “they think we will evaporate, but we won’t,” he said.

“We don’t have any other place to go,” Abueid said. “Either you live or you die.”

I’ll be watching the call for unity as it develops much different than I would have from home.

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Editor's note: This article is a part of Diane Winston's Reporting on Religion class at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School in collaboration with "On Being," Krista Tippett's award-winning American Public Radio program. To see more of their work from Israel-Palestine, visit their Tumblr site reporting-on-religion.tumblr.com.