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Israel to end punitive demolitions
The Israeli occupation army will stop its punitive policy of destroying Palestinian homes after a recommendation by a military panel, but it will not halt large-scale demolitions such as those that have taken place in Gaza.
The decision by Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on Friday came after a military committee recommended against the illegal and controversial policy, under which more than 4240 Palestinians have lost their homes during the most recent intifada.
The panel concluded that "no effective deterrence was proven" by demolishing Palestinian homes and that in fact the damage far outweighed the benefits to the state of Israel.
Compensation urged
The finding came as no surprise to human rights groups such as B'Tselem, which have long advocated against home demolitions and urged compensation for Palestinians whose homes have been demolished as a result of this policy, which dates back to 1967.
"Demolishing their homes is a clear case of collective punishment, and violates the precept that a person should not be punished for the acts of others. Thus, the practice is illegal, regardless of its effectiveness," said the group in a news release.
30,000 made homeless
Absent from the army's recommendation were demolitions in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been made homeless by Israeli armoured bulldozers over the past four years.
The Israeli decision applies only to what are known as punitive demolitions - homes demolished to punish the families and neighbours of Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks against Israelis - said Sohad Saqallah of B'Tselem.
Punitive demolitions make up less than 15% of Israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes, says the group.
According to a report the group published in November, the overwhelming majority of homes demolished by the Israeli army are in the framework of what Israel calls "clearing operations" such as those that have taken place in Rafah.
Gaza offensive
The southern Gaza Strip refugee camp, which is overseen by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), accounts for the bulk of such operations, most recently in a bloody May 2004 offensive codenamed Operation Rainbow that resulted in 59 Palestinian deaths.
"UNRWA's major concern has not been with targeted demolitions but with widescale demolitions that have left almost 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip homeless over the last four years," said UNRWA spokesperson Paul McCann.
"The really substantial number [of demolitions] has been collective punishment in Rafah and Jenin and Khan Yunus, not these sort of specific punishment exercises."
Israeli authorities have in the past cited security concerns and arms-smuggling tunnels as their justification for raiding Rafah and their mass demolition of homes there. But a Human Rights Watch report published in October said the Israeli arguments "crumble under scrutiny", accusing Israel of systematically expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from the border area in the southern Gaza Strip.
Creating a buffer zone
The New-York based group says the Israeli military has razed and displaced entire neighbourhoods to widen a so-called buffer zone along the densely populated border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the army's decision to stop punitive demolitions can be changed at any time. "If an extreme change in circumstances takes place, the aforementioned decision regarding the policy will be re-examined."
The spokesperson also said the policy was part of Israel's "obligation and right to defend itself," contrary to the view of international law.
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying state from destroying the property of civilians in occupied territory except where absolutely militarily necessary and absolutely prohibits the use of collective punishment.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz criticised the demolitions in an editorial on Friday, saying they were evidence of the Israeli army's "helplessness, and the inability to quell the intifada by military means".
Aljazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31DEB982-65B7-43B1-906F-FCB0A8E5C179.htm
The panel concluded that "no effective deterrence was proven" by demolishing Palestinian homes and that in fact the damage far outweighed the benefits to the state of Israel.
Compensation urged
The finding came as no surprise to human rights groups such as B'Tselem, which have long advocated against home demolitions and urged compensation for Palestinians whose homes have been demolished as a result of this policy, which dates back to 1967.
"Demolishing their homes is a clear case of collective punishment, and violates the precept that a person should not be punished for the acts of others. Thus, the practice is illegal, regardless of its effectiveness," said the group in a news release.
30,000 made homeless
Absent from the army's recommendation were demolitions in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been made homeless by Israeli armoured bulldozers over the past four years.
The Israeli decision applies only to what are known as punitive demolitions - homes demolished to punish the families and neighbours of Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks against Israelis - said Sohad Saqallah of B'Tselem.
Punitive demolitions make up less than 15% of Israel's demolitions of Palestinian homes, says the group.
According to a report the group published in November, the overwhelming majority of homes demolished by the Israeli army are in the framework of what Israel calls "clearing operations" such as those that have taken place in Rafah.
Gaza offensive
The southern Gaza Strip refugee camp, which is overseen by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), accounts for the bulk of such operations, most recently in a bloody May 2004 offensive codenamed Operation Rainbow that resulted in 59 Palestinian deaths.
"UNRWA's major concern has not been with targeted demolitions but with widescale demolitions that have left almost 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip homeless over the last four years," said UNRWA spokesperson Paul McCann.
"The really substantial number [of demolitions] has been collective punishment in Rafah and Jenin and Khan Yunus, not these sort of specific punishment exercises."
Israeli authorities have in the past cited security concerns and arms-smuggling tunnels as their justification for raiding Rafah and their mass demolition of homes there. But a Human Rights Watch report published in October said the Israeli arguments "crumble under scrutiny", accusing Israel of systematically expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from the border area in the southern Gaza Strip.
Creating a buffer zone
The New-York based group says the Israeli military has razed and displaced entire neighbourhoods to widen a so-called buffer zone along the densely populated border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the army's decision to stop punitive demolitions can be changed at any time. "If an extreme change in circumstances takes place, the aforementioned decision regarding the policy will be re-examined."
The spokesperson also said the policy was part of Israel's "obligation and right to defend itself," contrary to the view of international law.
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying state from destroying the property of civilians in occupied territory except where absolutely militarily necessary and absolutely prohibits the use of collective punishment.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz criticised the demolitions in an editorial on Friday, saying they were evidence of the Israeli army's "helplessness, and the inability to quell the intifada by military means".
Aljazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31DEB982-65B7-43B1-906F-FCB0A8E5C179.htm
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It's interesting to note that the number of homes actually destroyed in this manner in the past four years (675) is far less than the 35,000 homes claimed destroyed by some pro-Palestinian groups. But then exaggerated claims of Israel's "crimes" are nothing new.
Remember the 1000 + supposedly killed in Jenin in 2002?
The final death toll was 56, according to PA authorities.
Israel bulldozes homes that are built illegally without permits, often on property not owned by the builder. This is also done in California as there are logical reasons for building according to zoning, building codes, and only where clear title to the land is known. We should not condemn the Israelis for these kinds of home demolitions unless we are willing to condemn our own county administrators for doing the same thing.
Israel will also bulldoze homes that are continually used as locations where snipers shoot at IDF soldiers or where bomb factories are located, or where terrorists meet to plan their next attacks. These demolitions have not been halted.
Israel has no desire to make any Palestinian homeless. These demolitions have been to stop the killing since Israel believes that a human life is more valuable than property.
--- Becky Johnson
(02-17) 09:48 PST JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --
Israel will abandon a decades-old policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen, accepting an army panel's assessment that the practice does not deter attacks and should be stopped, the military said Thursday.
The decision means an end to a policy that has led to the destruction of more than 1,800 Palestinian homes as punishment since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, including 675 during the past four years of fighting, the Israeli human rights group B'tselem said.
Human rights groups have condemned the demolitions as collective punishment and have demanded for years that they be halted. B'tselem says the policy violates international law.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the demolitions stopped on the recommendation of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the military said, referring to the tactic as Israel's "legal right."
"The chief of staff clarified that if an extreme change in circumstances takes place, the aforementioned decision regarding the policy will be re-examined," the statement added.
The committee found that house demolitions generally inflame hatred, citing only 20 cases in which the threat of demolition deterred potential attackers or pushed their families to turn them in. Militant groups compensate families of attackers and help them rebuild, which weakens any possible deterrent effect.
House demolitions, along with other army practices such as targeted killings of Palestinian militants, were suspended after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a truce earlier this month.
Yaalon concluded that "when there's more quiet, it's not the time to use this policy," a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Punitive demolitions during the last four years have left 4,239 Palestinians homeless, most of them in the West Bank, B'tselem said. Since 2000, more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed in bombings and shootings.
The human rights group says the Israeli military has destroyed more than 4,000 Palestinian homes during the current conflict. Most were razed in operations to clear away buildings used by militants as cover for attacks or to widen security roads. Those practices were not included in Thursday's decision.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said the change in policy was part of the package of measures Israelis and Palestinians agreed to earlier this month during their Egyptian summit, where they declared an end to four years of bloodletting.
The package, Ashrawi said, was meant to end not only the demolition of homes, but Israeli military raids and assassinations of wanted men as well.
"We think this is the implementation of one part of the deal, and we hope they will implement all the other parts," she said.
The three-story home belonging to the family of Ala Sanakra, local leader of the violent Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, was demolished last fall after he recruited a 19-year-old woman from a nearby camp to blow herself up at a busy Jerusalem junction, killing herself and two Israeli policemen.
Sanakra, a bachelor, had his own apartment in the family compound, which was home to nine people. He said the army could have demolished his rooms and spared the rest of the house.
The demolition "motivated me to send more people on missions and gave more motivation to our fighters," Sanakra said in a telephone interview Thursday.
He has the money to rebuild but will not do so because he fears the army will raze any new construction, he said. For now, he rents a room nearby for $180 a month. His mother often visits the pile of rubble that was once her home and drinks her morning coffee there, he said.
The policy of house demolitions is a holdover from the British rule of Palestine and has been used intermittently in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967, peaking during the first Palestinian uprising from 1987-1993 and in the current round of violence. Legal efforts by human rights groups to halt the practice have failed.
B'tselem said that in many of the demolitions since 2000, adjacent buildings also were damaged or razed. In half the cases, the army never claimed the houses it demolished were home to Palestinians directly involved in attacks, the group said. In 97 percent of the demolitions, residents received no warning, the group said.
Boaz Ganor, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said the policy has been applied too indiscriminately during the past four years but should not be halted entirely. The military should keep razing houses if relatives of an attacker were involved in violence or if an attack led to large numbers of Israeli casualties, he said.
Ganor acknowledged that effectiveness was not the military's only consideration, and that demolitions are a way of settling scores and appeasing public opinion. The army revived the policy in October 2001 after a three-year lull.
___
Associated Press reporter Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus, West Bank, contributed to this report.