Tag: House Demolition - Page 53 - International Solidarity Movement

B’Tselem: Security forces demolish house of family of perpetrator of attack in Jerusalem

Demolition of the Dwiyat family’s house, East Jerusalem. Photo: Kareem Jubran, B'Tselem, 7 April 2009.

On 7 April, security forces demolished the apartment, in Zur Baher, East Jerusalem, of the family of Husam Dwiyat, who carried out a bulldozer attack in the center of Jerusalem in July of last year. The demolition took place after the High Court of Justice denied, on 18 March, the family’s petition opposing the action.

As in previous cases of this kind, the justices (Levy, Grunis, and Na’or) accepted the state’s argument that demolition of the family home will deter others from carrying out similar acts. The justices approved the demolition, even though the state never contended that Dwiyat’s family assisted him or knew of his plans.

From 1967 to 2005, Israel maintained a policy to demolish or seal houses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a means to punish the families of Palestinians who had harmed Israelis. The policy was based on the claim that, out of concern for their families, Palestinians would be deterred from carrying out attacks. In implementing this policy, from October 2001 to the end of January 2005, Israel demolished 664 houses, leaving 4,182 persons homeless.

This practice is forbidden under international humanitarian law. The declared objective is to harm innocent persons – relatives of suspects – whom nobody contends were involved in any offense. As such, it constitutes collective punishment, which violates the principle that a person is not to be punished for the acts of another.

In February 2005, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon accepted the recommendations of a team headed by Maj. Gen. Udi Shani, and decided that houses would no longer be demolished as punishment. The change in policy had a few causes, among them the determination that it is was impossible to state without reservation that house demolitions were effective in preventing terrorist attacks. In addition, evidence was presented to the Shani team indicating that house demolitions as punishment created immense hatred, which increased motivation to carry out terrorist attacks. In addition, it was determined by the committee that house demolitions adversely affected Israel’s public image around the world, and its legality under international law was unclear.

The judge advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, explained at a meeting of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset that the decision to cease house demolitions as punishment did not relate only to periods of calm, and that it would remain in effect also if terrorist attacks resumed. The JAG emphasized that the decision was sweeping, and that the subject would be reconsidered only in the event of a drastic change in circumstances.

Despite this, on 19 January 2009, without giving a convincing explanation, Israel renewed its policy and sealed two of four floors in the house of the family of the perpetrator of the attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, ‘Alaa Abu Dahim, in which his parents and one of his brothers lived. In that case as well, the High Court approved the state’s action.

Al-Fakhouri home demolished in East Jerusalem

6 April 2009

On the morning of 6 April, about 150 Israeli soldiers, police & border police came and woke up the 22 members of the Al-Fakhouri family in the Burj Al-Laqlaq neighborhood. The Israeli forces blocked all the entrance roads to the house and occupied three rooftops threatening to arrest anyone who got near the house being demolished.

Around 30 workers destroyed the house in a process taking about 5 hours. The workers left concrete rubble and other debris in the surrounding street. The family was told that for everyday the rubble was left in the streets, the family would be charged 600 shekels on top of paying for the demolition itself.

The family found a demolition order on their door only 2 days prior to the demolition, on Thursday 2nd of April. On the 5th of April, Israeli police showed up at the house around 3PM with another demotion order and told the family to contact a lawyer.

The house was demolished three years ago and the family started rebuilding one and half years before the latest demolition. Due to the limited amount of space and crowded conditions one father in the family had to move with his children because they got sick.

The land and house has been in possession of the Al-Fakhouri family for over 100 years.

The demolition of the Al-Fakhouri home is part of the Israeli ethnic cleansing of occupied East Jerusalem. Over 100 other homes are slated for demolition, which will leave thousands homeless.

Israeli forces demolish family home of Hussam Dwayat and kill 20 year old Palestinian

7 April 2009

The Israeli army shot dead a young Palestinian in the Sur Bahir village centre in East Jerusalem, while the house of the family of Hussam Dwayat was being demolished in a nearby neighbourhood.

The demolition has been carried out as a form of collective punishment to the family of Hussam Dwayat, who killed 3 people in an alleged buldozer attack on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road in July 2008. Although Hussam has been shot dead at the scene of the accident, the occupation forces proceeded onto demolishing the house of his family, despite of the 2005 military commission ruling out this controversial policy as ineffective in deterring future attacks.

According to the residents, the army arrived at 6am and proceeded onto forcing 20 family members out of the house. There was a heavy police and army presence, including tear-gas armed riot police, in the adjacent area and several access roads have been blocked.

ISM activists arrived at the scene shortly before 9am, just before the actual demolition started. A small crowd of neighbours and relatives gathered to watch the demolition of the house which took many years to build and has only been completed 7 years ago. The family members, all of whom have lost their jobs after the Jaffa Road accident, have received the demolition order two weeks before it has been carried out. They remained unclear about the future ownership of the land the house was standing on.

The whole demolition took several hours and top two floors have been completely destroyed, while the downstairs apartment has been left intact. As the army was leaving the scene, the owners raised a palestinian flag on the top of the remains of the house.

While the demolition was still underway, a young Palestinian was shot dead in his car by the army in a separate incident in the village centre, about 10 minutes walking from the demolition scene. While the army is justifying the shooting by claiming that the man was attempting to kill or injure the soldiers, eye-witnesses have reported that there was no intention in his acting and believed the accident was a result of the high presence of army and police in the area in connection with the morning house demolition.

When the ISM activists arrived at the scene, approximately 30 minutes after the killing, the body of the shot man was still lying next to his car, which had about 15 bullet holes in the windscreen. When the ambulance finally arrived, another 30 minutes later, a big crowd of local residents that gathered meanwhile started shouting pro-Palestinian slogans and shortly after clashes errupted between the police who started shooting tear-gas, aiming directly into the crowd in many cases. The clashes continued for about another hour, and ended when the police and army finally withdrew from the area.

Israeli police shoot motorist during house demolition

Rory McCarthy | The Guardian

7 April 2009

Israeli police today shot dead a Palestinian driver they said had tried to attack them during the demolition of a Palestinian home in Jerusalem.

The driver was shot at a roadblock set up by border police in Sur Bahir, a district on the city’s Arab eastern side. A police spokesman described him as a “terrorist”. Three officers were injured.

The incident came after police had begun the partial demolition of a house belonging to Husam Dweiyat, a Palestinian who drove a bulldozer down a busy Jerusalem road last July, ramming a bus and crushing cars, and killing three Israelis, before he was shot dead.

At the time police described it as a terrorist attack, although the man’s lawyer later said the bulldozer driver had been mentally ill. Dweiyat did not appear to have belonged to any armed Palestinian groups.

There have since been two similar bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem.

Last month, Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal against the proposed demolition of the house and said it could go ahead. Israeli authorities had long argued that demolishing the homes of attackers discouraged further attacks, although the policy changed in 2005 when a military commission argued that it caused more harm than benefit. This demolition was the first since.

Armed police watched as the top floors of the stone house were knocked to the ground. Parts of the house were left standing but sealed with concrete.

Israel’s leading human rights group, B’Tselem, said the demolitions were forbidden by international humanitarian law and constituted “collective punishment”. It said between October 2001 and January 2005 – at the height of the second intifada or Palestinian uprising – Israel demolished 664 houses under the deterrent policy, leaving 4,182 Palestinians homeless.

Municipality of Jerusalem to ‘blow up’ houses

Tsipi Malkuv | Yediot Yerushaliyim

6 April 2009

English Translation: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

THERE WILL BE AS BLAST [or a political blow-up; its a play on words in Hebrew] by Tsipi Malkuv

[Subtitle] The policy of demolishing homes [in Jerusalem] will continue at an increased rate

The Jerusalem municipality continues to demonstrate determination in carrying out its policy of demolishing homes, despite the strong international opposition. This week it decided to bring a new instrument into play: the blowing up of homes instead of their demolition by bulldozers.

Two weeks ago it was made public that the municipality intends to spend 1.2 million shekels on aerial photographing to track building offenders, in the eastern part of the city in particular. Mayor Nir Barakat declared “an uncompromising war against the phenomenon,” as he defined it.

It seems that also the diplomatic storm aroused by Barakat’s remarks against the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is opposed to the demolition of homes in Silwan, does not bother him. The Americans are very disturbed and have filed a sharp protest to the Prime Minister’s Office against Barakat, but Barakat termed Clinton’s remarks “air without substance.” In the meantime the municipality continues in its policy which had led until now to the demolition of 30 houses [this year], 17 of them in East Jerusalem. [The reporter is confusing “houses” with “structures;” hence the 13 in West Jerusalem.]

This week the municipality bolstered its attempts to impress on everyone its determination. On Monday, the members of the Municipal Tender Committee were asked to approve the hiring of a company specializing in demolishing buildings by means of controlled explosions. In his explanatory comments to the committee members, Ofer Mai, the head of the Building Inspectors’ Department, wrote: “In unusual circumstances there is no practical possibility to demolish complex buildings with existing equipment because of technical limitations or a lack of time, and thus the need to to conduct a controlled demolition by means of explosives. Because it is important to carry out demolition orders, and the speed of demolition is a calculation, we are interested that we have the possibility of also employing demolitions by controlled explosions.”

The municipality: “The Building Inspectors’ Departrment intends to be aided by the services of the company in cases where there is a technical difficulty in carrying out the demolition by mechanical means and the use of explosives is the only possibility. The Department has used this technology in the past with great success, without damaging adjoining buildings.”