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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 controversial tactic used by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) for counter-insurgency and other security purposes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The IDF justifies it as a deterrent against terrorism. The effectiveness and legality of this practice has repeatedly been questioned by human rights groups, whose neutrality has in turn been questioned.

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.

Purposes and means

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House demolition is typically justified by the Israeli Defence Forces on grounds 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.

Opponents of house demolition cite other motives:

• Collective punishment. This refers to the indiscriminate use of force against Palestinian civilians as a punishment for "harbouring" or "tolerating" militant activity.
• Annexation of land to build the Israeli West Bank barrier or to expand Israeli settlements.

Demolition is carried out using armored bulldozers, explosives planted by combat engineering forces, or by directly bombing the house with artillery or aircraft.

Legal status

The legality of house demolition under International law is disputed. The Fourth Geneva Convention protects non-combatants in occupied territories. Article 53 says: "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons … is prohibited."

Israel, which is a party to the Convention, denies that it is applicable to the Palestinian territories, on the grounds that acceptance of this convention would imply recognition that they are sovereign territories of other states, but has stated that on humanitarian issues it will govern itself de facto by its provisions, without specifying which these are.

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 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 and this is now what happens in most cases.

House demolition as a punitive measure

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 or legal process and often during the night. The home's inhabitants are given little time to evacuate - usually between a few minutes to half an hour.

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 writes:

"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."

House demolitions in recent conflicts

House demolition has been used in an on-again-off-again fashion by the Israeli government during the al-Aqsa 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 bombmaker, known as "the engineer"), as well as the perpetators 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;

References

1. House demolitions as punishment
2. Cite error: The named reference btselem-punishment was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property. Amnesty International
4. Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - Frequently asked questions
5. Alan Dowty, The Jewish State: A Century Later, University of California Press, 2001, ISBN 0520229118, p. 217.
6. Gerson, Allan. Israel, the West Bank, and International law, Routledge, Sept 28, 1978, ISBN 0-7146-3091-8, p. 82.
7. 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
8. THE LEGALITY OF HOUSE DEMOLITIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
9. ^ Katz, Samuel (2002). The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press. ISBN 1585747491., page 160
10. Israel: House demolitions -- Palestinians given "15 minutes to leave... Amnesty International. December 8, 1999
11. Is the House Demolition Policy Legal under International Humanitarian Law?
12. Human Rights News: IDF House Demolition Injures Refugees
13. Yaacov Lozowick (2004): "Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars" ISBN 1400032431. p.260
14. Through No Fault of Their Own: Israel's Punitive House Demolitions in the al-Aqsa Intifada. B'Tselem
15. Palestine Facts. Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
16. Katz, 280-281

External links

• Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

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