Israel tries to deter with demolitions

House demolitions derive their legal basis from emergency regulations promulgated by the British authorities in 1945 and adopted by the Israeli state after its establishment in 1948.

In August, the High Court of Justice accepted the army's argument that giving Palestinians 48 hours to appeal the demolition order could endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers. The decision left discretion to grant judicial review in the hands of the local army commander.

In Beit Lahiya, Maher says his father was deaf and must have slept through the soldiers loudspeaker evacuation announcement. He says troops gave residents three minutes to leave the house and refused to halt the demolition despite pleas by relatives that his father, a refugee from Israel's establishment in 1948, was still inside. The army says it searched the building for two hours and found no one.

In April, during fighting in Jenin Refugee Camp, an Israeli bulldozer destroyed a house on top of Jamal Fa'id, a wheelchair bound resident. Halper says other civilians have been buried alive during demolitions.

Typically, in the first few weeks after a house is demolished, family members stay with relatives or neighbors who generally are themselves poor and have little space for them, Salameh says. In Nablus, a committee comprised of representatives from the governorate, the municipality, Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, Hamas and other factions provide families with grants of $200 a month for four months so that they can rent apartments. The families apply for a renewal but it is seldom granted, she says.

Those who live in refugee camps are able to get some assistance from the United Nations, enabling them to rebuild part of their homes, Salameh says. As a result, a family that formerly lived three in a room would now have seven or eight people packed into the same room, she says.

Israel announced last Monday that the army plans to demolish another 15 Palestinian buildings in Hebron to create a safe corridor for Jewish worshipers from the Kiryat Arba settlement to reach the shrine at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Israeli officials say the buildings are abandoned, but Hebron mayor Mustafa Natsheh says the step will displace Palestinian families. In Beit Lahiya, Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Batsh says: "If the Israelis destroy our homes and demolish our lives, the Palestinian resistance should destroy their homes," he said. "If anyone destroys two houses in Tel Aviv, this will stop."

Is the Israeli deterrence strategy working?

Yoni Figel, an analyst at the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, says that there's not enough data yet to tell. Still, Figel backs the home demolitions, saying "any measure at this time that can contribute to deterrence cannot be excluded."

Page: 1 | 2