Israeli demolition of Palestinian property

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

A Palestinian home after demolition by Israeli security forces

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 militant operations.
• as a regulatory measure to enforce building codes and regulations.
• as a punitive measure against anyone suspected of aiding militants, 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

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

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.

Means

File:D9rafah01.jpg

Armored D9R bulldozer demolish house during Operation Rainbow in Rafah, 2004.

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

House demolitions were used in the region under the British Mandate. In 1945 the authorities passed the Defence (Emergency) Regulations and Regulation 119 made this practice available to the local Military Commander without limit or appeal.

In a 1987 letter, the British said this regulation had been repealed in 1948. However, the repeal was not published in the Palestine Gazette, as required in law at that time, and Israel still operates the contentious policy of punitive military house demolition under the 1945 British DER 119.

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."

Rachel Corrie

Main article: Rachel Corrie

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;

Demolitions as a regulatory measure

Some house demolitions are allegedly performed because the houses may have been built without permits, or are in violation of various building codes, ordinances or regulations. Some International human rights groups and community figures claim that Israeli authorities are in fact systematically denying building permit requests in Arab areas as a means of appropriating land.. This is disputed by Israeli sources, who claim that both Arabs and Jews enjoy a similar rate of application approvals. .

According to Amnesty International, "The destruction of Palestinian homes, agricultural land and other property in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, is inextricably linked with Israel’s long-standing policy of appropriating as much as possible of the land it occupies, notably by establishing Israeli settlements." In Oct 1999, during the "Peace Process" and before the start of the Al Aqsa Intefada, Amnesty International wrote that: "well over one third of the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem live under threat of having their house demolished. ... Threatened houses exist in almost every street and it is probable that the great majority of Palestinians live in or next to a house due for demolition."

"House demolitions ostensibly occur because the homes are built 'illegally' - i.e. without a permit. Officials and spokespersons of the Israeli government have consistently maintained that the demolition of Palestinian houses is based on planning considerations and is carried out according to the law. ... But the Israeli policy has been based on discrimination. Palestinians are targeted for no other reasons than that they are Palestinians. ... [Israel has] discriminated in the application of the law, strictly enforcing planning prohibitions where Palestinian houses are built and freely allowing amendments to the plans to promote development where Israelis are setting up settlements."

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

2005	West Jerusalem	East Jerusalem
Infractions	5653	1272
Charges filed	1529 (27%)	857 (67%)
Administrative demolishing orders	aprox 40	aprox 80
Demolitions	26 (0.45%)	76 (5.97%)

These 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..

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Demolitions due to territorial withdrawals

Main article: Israeli settlement § Dismantlement of settlements

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.

External links

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