![]() ![]() Though Israeli authorities maintain that punitive demolitions are a means of achieving security, Israel does not demolish the homes of Israelis who have committed crimes against Palestinians, including Israeli terrorists, as part of its policy. Punitive demolitions function as an act of collective punishment against the families of suspects or perpetrators, and create insecurity in the surrounding community. ![]() In all of the recent testimonies about punitive demolitions that DCIP collected, the accused assailant had already been killed or jailed before the demolition. Israeli authorities do not spare a family based on financial situation, the number of dependent children or elderly relatives, or the ability of the family to find a new place to live.Īccording to OCHA, Israel has demolished 21 homes in punitive actions since the start of 2016, displacing 100 people, including 35 children. It is the families, including the siblings, of suspected perpetrators who suffer the most from a home demolition. ![]() However, the extent to which house demolitions are an effective deterrent is questionable, with some evidence demonstrating that demolitions can increase the odds of a violent incident. If a potential perpetrator knows that their family will suffer as a result of their actions, Israel believes that they will be less likely to perpetrate a crime. Officially, Israeli authorities claim that punitive demolitions serve as an act of deterrence intended to stymie attacks on Israelis. Punitive demolitions are markedly different from other kinds of demolition or destruction of homes. Of the 2,220 Palestinians killed, 547 were children. Roads, hospitals, and other essential infrastructure were also destroyed and damaged, including 244 schools, according to UNICEF. In the summer of 2014, Israel’s 50-day military incursion in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, destroyed 20,000 homes, leaving up to half a million people displaced. Occasionally, homes are destroyed during concentrated Israeli military operations. This land is almost entirely exhausted, leaving what little space remains very expensive to purchase. The remaining 40 percent of the West Bank, designated as Areas A and B by the Oslo Accords, is under Palestinian civil control with shared Israeli-Palestinian security control in Area B. These homes are under constant threat of demolition from the moment construction begins, and are often demolished with little notice. However, Israeli authorities refuse the majority of applications for building permits by Palestinians in Israeli-controlled Area C, which comprises 60 percent of the West Bank, forcing them to build homes without the necessary permits. Israel demolishes Palestinians homes for a number of stated reasons, most often citing a lack of building permits, paperwork or infrastructure on the part of the homeowner. In February, UN Special Coordinator, Nickolay Mladenov, reported to the UN Security Council that Israel is demolishing an average of 29 Palestinian structures per week since the start of 2016, three times the weekly average in 2015. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions reports that Israeli has demolished more than 48,000 Palestinian structures since 1967, of which 24,000 are estimated to be homes. Home demolitions are a trademark of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. “We are currently living in a rented house in Beit Amra in difficult conditions - psychologically, socially, and financially,” said the father. The demolition left the family of seven, of whom three are children, homeless during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Such was the urgency with which Israeli forces moved in on the home, that the family was not able or allowed to remove their furniture and belongings. Though the case was taken up by Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, the army swept in and destroyed the house without warning before a resolution was reached. As they left, they handed the family a demolition order. His son was arrested by the soldiers, who returned the following day and locked the family in a room while they measured the house. “ locked the rest of my family in another room.” “Israeli forces blew up the front door of my two-storey house, stormed the first floor and locked me in one room along with my wife and my son,” the teenager’s father, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Defense for Children International - Palestine. ![]()
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