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This article covers the use of house demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For a broader overview of house demolition as a military tactic, see house demolition.

House demolition is a measure carried out by the Israeli government, for various reasons and in various locations and situations. Official explanations for house demolitions include the following:

• as a security measure to impede or halt terrorist operations.
• as a regulatory measure to enforce building codes and regulations.
• as a punitive measure against anyone suspected of aiding terrorism, and/or their family.

A subject of considerable international controversy, human rights organizations have criticized the use of house demolitions by Israel as a violation of international law, and suggested that they are motivated by Israeli demographic objectives.

Demolitions due to punitive and anti-terrorist measures

House demolition is a controversial tactic used by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The IDF justifies it for counter-insurgency and other security purposes as a deterrent against terrorism. Human rights groups who oppose the practice question the motivation, the legality and the effectiveness of this practice.

Purpose and Means

House demolition is typically justified by the Israeli Defence Forces on claims of:

• Deterrence, achieved by harming the relatives of those who carry out, or are suspected of involvement in carrying out, attacks.
• Counter-terrorism, by destroying militant facilities such as bombs labs, headquarters, and offices.
• Forcing out an individual barricaded inside a house, which may be rigged with explosives, without risking soldiers' lives.
• Self-defence, by destroying possible hideouts.
• Combat engineering, clearing a path for tanks and heavy APCs.

Human Rights groups such as Amnesty International who oppose the house demolitions accuse the Israeli government and/or the IDF of other motives:

• Collective punishment, the punishment of an innocent Palestinian "for an offence he or she has not personally committed."
• Annexation of land to build the Israeli West Bank barrier or to create, expand or otherwise benefit Israeli settlements.

Demolitions are carried out by the Israeli Army Engineering Corps using armored bulldozers, usually Caterpillar D9, but also with excavators (for high multi-stories buildings) and wheel loaders (for small houses with low risk) modified by the IDF. The armored D9 is often used when there is a risk to the forces, such as when armed insurgents are barricaded inside or a house is full of explosives. Multi-stories building, flats and explosive lab are demolished by explosive devices, set by IDF demolition experts of Yaalom's Sayeret Yael. Amnesty International described house demolitions that were carried out by the IDF using "powerful explosive charges".

Legal status

The use of house demolition under international law is today governed by the Fourth Geneva Convention, enacted in 1949, which protects non-combatants in occupied territories. Article 53 provides that "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons ... is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations."

Israeli use of house demolitions has been particularly controversial. However, Israel, which is a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, asserts that the terms of the Convention are not applicable to the Palestinian territories on the grounds that the territories do not constitute a state which is a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention. This position is rejected by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, which notes that "it is a basic principle of human rights law that international human rights treaties are applicable in all areas in which states parties exercise effective control, regardless of whether or not they exercise sovereignty in that area."

House demolition as a punitive measure

Amnesty International has criticised the lack of due process in the use of house demolitions by Israel. Many demolitions are carried out with no warning or opportunity for the householder to appeal.

In 2002, a proposed demolition case was appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court who ruled that there must be a right to appeal unless doing so would "endanger the lives of Israelis or if there are combat activities in the vicinity." In a later ruling the Supreme Court decided that demolitions can be carried out if advance notice would hinder demolition. Amnesty describes this as "a virtual green light" to demolition with no warning.

History

The use of punitive house demolitions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in British military practices dating to the early twentieth century. In 1945, British Mandate authorities formally legislated these practices under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations. Regulation 119 states that:

" (1) A Military Commander may by order direct the forfeiture to the Government of Palestine of any house, structure, or land from which he has reason to suspect that any firearm has been illegally discharged, or any bomb, grenade or explosive or incendiary article illegally thrown, or of any house, structure or land situated in any area, town, village, quarter or street the inhabitants or some of the inhabitants of which he is satisfied have committed, or attempted to commit, or abetted the commission of, or been accessories after the fact to the commission of, any offence against these Regulations involving violence or intimidation or any Military Court offence; and when any house, structure or land is forfeited as aforesaid, the Military Commander may destroy the house or the structure or anything growing on the land.

According to author Samuel Katz, "Destroying the house of a terrorist ... was cruel and after the fact, but it was meant to convince fathers to convince their sons that carrying out a terrorist attack, no matter how justified in the grander struggle, meant enormous hardship for the family."

House demolitions are usually done without prior warning and often during the night. The home's inhabitants are given little time to evacuate - usually between a few minutes to half an hour.

In February 2005, the Israeli Defense Ministry ordered an end to the demolition of houses for the purpose of punishing the families of suicide bombers.

Criticism and responses

The effectiveness of house demolitions as a deterrence has been questioned. In 2005 an Israeli Army commission to study house demolitions found no proof of effective deterrence and concluded that the damage caused by the demolitions overrides its effectiveness. As a result, the IDF approved the commission's recommendations to end punitive demolitions of Palestinian houses.

A number of Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, oppose the practice. They argue that the practice violates international laws against collective punishment, the destruction of private property, and the use of force against civilians.

Israeli historian Yaacov Lozowick counters:

"Demolishing the homes of civilians merely because a family member has committed a crime is immoral. If, however,... potential suicide murderers... will refrain from killing out of fear that their mothers will become homeless, it would be immoral to leave the Palestinian mothers untouched in their homes while Israeli children die on their school buses."

In 2003 Rachel Corrie was killed by a bulldozer in a combat zone while protesting the use of bulldozers to destroy Palestinian houses. The IDF said she was killed by accident during routine terrain leveling and debris clearing, the bulldozer operators were unaware of her presence, and there was no house demolition in progress at the time. Observers with Corrie said that she and others had made their presence known to the operators, who appeared to be headed towards a house with four adults and five children inside.

Corrie's death aroused particularly intense international scrutiny of Israel's policy of demolition. After the incident, the U.S. Department of State outlined its views:

Our policy on demolitions has been stated repeatedly and is well known. We have been very clear that we view demolitions as particularly troubling. They deprive a large number of Palestinians of their ability to peacefully earn a livelihood. They exacerbate the humanitarian situation inside Palestinian areas, undermine trust and confidence and make more difficult the critical challenge of bringing about an end to violence and restoring calm.

House demolitions in recent conflicts

House demolition has been used in an on-again-off-again fashion by the Israeli government during the Second Intifada. More than 3,000 homes have been destroyed in this way. House demolition was used to destroy the family homes of Saleh Abdel Rahim al-Souwi, perpetrator of the Tel Aviv bus 5 massacre, and Yahya Ayyash, Hamas's chief bomb maker, known as "the engineer", as well as the perpetrators of the First and second Jerusalem bus 18 massacres, and the Ashqelon bus station bombing.

According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem:

• From October 2001 to December 2005, Israel has demolished 668 homes as punishment, leaving 4,182 people homeless;
• Israel has demolished 1,746 homes for alleged military purposes since B'Teselem started keeping statistics in this category in 2004;

Other reasons

Demolitions due to building code violations

Some house demolitions are performed because the houses may have been built without permits, or are in violation of various building codes, ordinances or regulations. Some Arab community figures and some human rights groups claim that Israeli authorities systematically deny building permit requests in Arab areas. . This is disputed by Israeli sources, who claim that both Arabs and Jews enjoy a similar rate of application approvals. . Dr. Meir Margalit of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions writes:

"The thinking is that a national threat calls for a national response, invariably aggressive. Accordingly, a Jewish house without a permit is an urban problem; but a Palestinian home without a permit is a strategic threat. A Jew building without a permit is ‘cocking a snook at the law’; a Palestinian doing the same is defying Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem."

Statistics

According to figures from the Jerusalem Municipal Department of Licensing and Inspection, the number of permits requested and approved in 2003 was:

The statistics purport to show that a majority of permits requested were granted in eastern Jerusalem, that the ratio of permits granted to Arabs in East Jerusalem was higher than that of permits granted to Jews in West Jerusalem, and that denial of permits, to Arabs and Jews, generally are meant to uphold master plans and building codes.

According to ICAHD, the statistics regarding violations and demolitions in the Jewish vs. Arab sector in 2005 were:

The statistics purport to show that while there are a significantly higher number of building violations in the western (Jewish) parts of Jerusalem the vast majority of the actual demolitions are done in the eastern (Palestinian) parts. These numbers are disputed, and according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, during the last few years, the great majority of illegal structures demolished by the Jerusalem Municipality were in the Jewish sector..

Demolitions due to territorial withdrawals

In recent years, the Israeli government has demolished some houses or other residences, and other property belonging to Israeli settlers, when conceding some land and territory to the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that this is due to a request from the Palestinian authorities to replace single-family dwellings with apartment buildings, better suited to the needs of the local population.

References

1. Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property. Executive Summary
2. Israel/Occupied Territories: House Demolition
3. ^ House demolitions as punishment B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
4. Mass Demolition: Security Rationales, Demographic Subtexts
5. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, International Committee of the Red Cross
6. ^ Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property. Amnesty International, 18 May 2004.
7. Update to Amnesty International’s briefing to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Amnesty International, 1 February 2007
8. Israeli-Weapons.com, D9 & D10
9. Fourth Geneva Convention, International Committee of the Red Cross
10. Alan Dowty, The Jewish State: A Century Later, University of California Press, 2001, ISBN 0520229118, p. 217.
11. Gerson, Allan. Israel, the West Bank, and International law, Routledge, Sept 28, 1978, ISBN 0-7146-3091-8, p. 82.
12. Roberts, Adam, "Decline of Illusions: The Status of the Israeli-Occupied Territories over 21 Years" in International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 64, No. 3. (Summer, 1988), pp. 345-359., p. 350
13. Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, The Legality Of House Demolitions Under International Humanitarian Law, Harvard University, May 2004
14. ^ Katz, Samuel (2002). The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press. ISBN 1585747491., page 160
15. Israel: House demolitions -- Palestinians given "15 minutes to leave... Amnesty International. December 8, 1999
16. BBC News, "Israel limits house demolitions", Thursday, 17 February, 2005
17. Is the House Demolition Policy Legal under International Humanitarian Law?
18. Human Rights News: IDF House Demolition Injures Refugees
19. Yaacov Lozowick (2004): "Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars" ISBN 1400032431. p.260
20. Israeli bulldozer kills American protester, CNN.Com, March 25, 2003
21. Two Families’ Dreams Were Not Demolished
22. Cordesman, Anthony H., Arab-Israeli Military Forces in an Era of Asymmetric Wars. Greenwood Press: 2006, page 72.
23. Through No Fault of Their Own: Israel's Punitive House Demolitions in the al-Aqsa Intifada. B'Tselem
24. Palestine Facts. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
25. Katz, 280-281
26. B'Tselem, B'Tselem - House demolitions as punishment - Statistics:
27. B'Tselem, B'Tselem - Demolition for Alleged Military Purposes - Statistics:
28. ^ Illegal Construction in Jerusalem
29. ^ Dr. Meir Margalit, (2007): "No Place Like Home"
31. The demolition of Gaza settlement homes - Background brief, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (retrieved 08-18-2007)

External links

• Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
• B'Tselem - Statistics on demolition of houses built without permits in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem)

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Human rights in the West Bank
• Human rights in the Gaza Strip
• Counter-insurgency
• Human rights abuses