Israel restarts controversial tactic: Razing Palestinian homes after attacks

BY CHRISTOPHER MILLER

JERUSALEM – Just before dawn earlier this week, an explosion rocked the densely populated Silwan neighborhood that sits on a steep hillside in East Jerusalem, destroying the fourth-floor apartment of Abed Rahman Shalodi and his family.

Israeli authorities had blown up the Shalodi home after Shalodi ran his car into a crowd of people in Jerusalem last month, killing a woman and a three-month-old girl.

Police shot and killed Shalodi after the attack. But, following a controversial policy, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) demolished the family home, extending punishment to Shalodi's relatives.
Standing atop the rubble, Shalodi’s mother and sisters recalled the moments before the explosion, when soldiers ushered them out of their home.

"At 1 a.m., police came and told us we have five minutes to go, and they took us out to a tent," said Shalodi’s 12-year-old sister, Nibras. "We weren’t allowed to eat or drink or use the toilet. It was very cold and we were there for three hours."

At 4 a.m., there was a loud explosion, she said. "There were a lot of us kids and we were crying. All of Silwan woke up when they heard the explosion.

When we were allowed to return to the building, we couldn’t believe this was our home. And we found that the soldiers had shit all over our mattresses," she said, in an account similar to others told by Palestinians whose homes have been razed or taken over by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities have demolished or sealed the family homes of at least five Palestinians suspected of killing Israelis this year, leaving dozens of people homeless.

The demolition of the Shalodi home this week is one of at least six orders recently issued by the Israeli government to raze the homes belonging to Palestinian attackers or their relatives. Families are granted 48 hours to file an appeal after being served a demolition warrant. But overturning a demolition decision is reportedly all but impossible.

Authorities had mostly abandoned the controversial policy of home demolitions after the Second Intifada ended in 2005. But, following an attack on a synagogue Tuesday that left five people dead, 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to step up demolitions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to step up demolitionswhich Israeli officials say is a deterrent.

“We will restore security to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said on a visit to a Jerusalem command post, according to The New York Times.

However, an investigation conducted by an Israeli military committee in 2005 found little evidence of effective deterrence, according to Haaretz. Moreover, the report said, because demolitions provoke more hostility among Palestinians, demolitions are actually more damaging to Israel's security interests.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week that demolitions only heighten tensions in a region already on edge after a series of deadly attacks in Jerusalem and a summer at war in Gaza.

Critics also charge that the policy of demolition is inhumane and illegal.

On Saturday, Human Rights Watch urged Israel to immediately impose a moratorium on the policy which "amounts to collective punishment" and "a war crime," the organization said.

"It is a basic principle of law that one person should not be punished for another’s crime,"said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for HRW.

At the demolished Shalodi home, the mother Enas said she is tired of death and destruction. "I don't like to see anyone die — not a Jew or a Palestinian," she said. "Violence only begets more violence."

http://mashable.com/2014/11/22/israeli-demolition-palestinian-homes/