Israel demolishes family home of Palestinian driver
22 Nov 2014 4:26 AM IST
Moving ahead with a revival of a controversial policy suspended a decade ago, Israeli security forces early Wednesday demolished the East Jerusalem family home of a Palestinian man who plowed his car into pedestrians last month, killing a baby and a young woman.
Inas al-Shaloudy, the mother of the driver, Abdel Rahman al-Shaloudy, said border police officers arrived ‘in large numbers’ Wednesday at 1 a.m. and evacuated about 50 people from her five-story building and nearby structures. Huddled with the group in a protest tent, she said she heard an explosion at 4 a.m. and returned an hour later to find her apartment filled with broken glass, its inner walls destroyed, and those of her neighbors cracked.
‘This is not only collective punishment, it is a call for a violent reaction,’ said Shaloudy, who teaches English. Israel sealed or destroyed the homes this summer of four other Palestinians who killed Jews, and did so twice in 2009, after halting the widespread practice in 2005 when a commission found that it rarely worked as a deterrent and instead inflamed hostility.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed to renew the policy as part of a wider crackdown following a wave of deadly attacks over the last month, the latest killing four worshippers and a police officer at a Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday. ‘You need a means of deterrence against the next suicide attacker,’ Netanyahu said. ‘When he knows that the house in which his family lives, will be demolished, this will have an impact.’ Human rights groups have long condemned such demolitions as collective punishment banned by international law.
They and others argue that it is also ineffective, and complain that similar measures are not taken against Jewish extremists like those now on trial for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old Palestinian. ‘Such acts may also invoke a desire to revenge such acts and not to stay passive.’
Alon Evyatar, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, warned, ‘Israel should also prepare for the possibility of someone who will rebuild these demolished homes for those families.’
Inas al-Shaloudy, the mother of the driver, Abdel Rahman al-Shaloudy, said border police officers arrived ‘in large numbers’ Wednesday at 1 a.m. and evacuated about 50 people from her five-story building and nearby structures. Huddled with the group in a protest tent, she said she heard an explosion at 4 a.m. and returned an hour later to find her apartment filled with broken glass, its inner walls destroyed, and those of her neighbors cracked.
‘This is not only collective punishment, it is a call for a violent reaction,’ said Shaloudy, who teaches English. Israel sealed or destroyed the homes this summer of four other Palestinians who killed Jews, and did so twice in 2009, after halting the widespread practice in 2005 when a commission found that it rarely worked as a deterrent and instead inflamed hostility.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed to renew the policy as part of a wider crackdown following a wave of deadly attacks over the last month, the latest killing four worshippers and a police officer at a Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday. ‘You need a means of deterrence against the next suicide attacker,’ Netanyahu said. ‘When he knows that the house in which his family lives, will be demolished, this will have an impact.’ Human rights groups have long condemned such demolitions as collective punishment banned by international law.
They and others argue that it is also ineffective, and complain that similar measures are not taken against Jewish extremists like those now on trial for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old Palestinian. ‘Such acts may also invoke a desire to revenge such acts and not to stay passive.’
Alon Evyatar, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, warned, ‘Israel should also prepare for the possibility of someone who will rebuild these demolished homes for those families.’
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