House demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Palestinian house destroyed by Israeli security forces

House demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a practice by the Israeli Armed Forces to demolish the homes of Palestinian bombers and their families as a deterrent, and those that were built without permission as a security measure. House demolitions as a deterrent were first used by the British in the late phase of their League of Nations mandate for Palestine and were used in particular during the two intifadas . While Israel describes the demolition of the houses as a conflict or necessary for security reasons, human rights organizations such as B. the Israel Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) or Amnesty International in it systematics and war crimes . At the beginning of 2005, Israel decided to cease using this method as a punishment against assassins, as it fueled the climate of mutual violence far more than served as a deterrent. In 2014 the Israeli government reinstated the punitive measure.

Legal bases and case groups

There are three legal grounds for demolishing houses in the Israeli occupied territories and in Israel itself:

No building permit
This only affects areas that are not administered by the Palestinian Authority (Zone C, about 60% of the Palestinian Authority ). Demolitions of houses due to a lack of building permits affect Jews and Arabs alike. In some cases, however, planned demolition work is stopped. In June 2010, the Jerusalem city council planned to demolish 22 houses in the suburb of Silwan to make way for a park, which led to great tensions within Jerusalem and resulted in condemnation by Washington and the United Nations . Also Bedouin in the Negev and in the Jordan Valley are increasingly faced with house demolitions, because they often build without permits on their declared as pasture land, rather than move to partly planned especially for them cities like the set up in 1989 Hura. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem , Israel has been putting pressure on the Bedouins in the Jordan Valley to leave their country since the 1970s . When several houses were destroyed in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Ḥīrān on January 18, 2017, a Bedouin killed a police officer and was subsequently killed by security forces. Israel points out that illegal buildings are being destroyed in all constitutional states. However, the circumstances that lead to it are criticized: refusal of building permits or subsequent legalizations.
For safety reasons
Because buildings are too close to roads or settlements used by Israelis, or because the Israeli barriers are being built , the army can request the removal of existing houses. An official procedure is necessary for this. This type of expropriation is also possible in other states; there is no compensation for the residents. For example, there have been regular requests to demolish very old Palestinian buildings on the street in Hebron on the Worshipers' Way that the settlers from Kirjat Arba take to the grotto of the patriarchs.
As a punitive measure
Using an old law from the British Mandate, houses from which attacks were made on Israelis are being destroyed. But it is also sufficient that an attacker or assassin lived there. Since Arab families are large and several generations live together in one house, this often affects many people. Israel justifies this morally with the comparison that innocent people suffer even if a family member is imprisoned because they would then no longer have a family income. On the other hand, this measure is also intended to serve as a deterrent to attackers. From the Israeli perspective, the legal basis of the measure is the British Mandate Emergency Ordinance Regulation 119 from 1945. After the violence in the League of Nations Mandate Palestine escalated again at the end of the Second World War, Great Britain, as the responsible protecting power, issued this ordinance to provide a means of containing the conflict to have. The British made little use of it. The withdrawal of the British in 1948 turned out to be less than planned: Regulation 119 was repealed, but the announcement of the repeal in the Official Gazette was omitted. In 1987, the UK Foreign Office wrote to Israel that Regulation 119 had been repealed. Israel, however, takes the view that the change in law would have required notice to be effective and therefore continues to apply the provision. This is covered by Article 53 of the First Geneva Convention of 1949 , which allows the destruction of buildings for military reasons . However, it is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of the Civilian Population , unless this is necessary. Destruction is not permitted under Article 33, in particular if uninvolved third parties are punished. Israel does not consider this convention to be applicable to the occupied territories because it is not the territory of any other state. Jordan gave up its controversial claims to the West Bank in 1988, the Gaza Strip has been stateless since the division of the mandate area, and the autonomous areas themselves are not considered a state. In addition, all house demolitions are "militarily necessary".

Organizational flow

The destruction as a punitive measure takes place independently of a (military) judicial conviction. The corresponding notification is issued by the army without a hearing. The destruction often takes place immediately after the offense to be retaliated, long before criminal proceedings against the perpetrator. Army pioneers usually appear the next day to measure the house for planning the demolition or destruction. At this point, the indictment hasn't even been made. The principle of the presumption of innocence is not observed. In November 2018, the army ordered the demolition of the home of Ashraf Naawla, who at that time was still on the run as a suspected perpetrator after an attack with two dead. The actual destruction did not take place until a month later, immediately after the suspect was found and killed.

In the meantime there is an opportunity to appeal against the destruction by appealing to the Supreme Court . For this purpose, a preliminary notification with an appointment is first given or attached to the house. In the case of destruction as a punitive measure, an appeal is seldom successful; in other cases there is sometimes at least a delay.

The objection is dealt with by a three-person panel of judges, who decide according to the majority principle. Sometimes the negotiation is about whether it is necessary to destroy the entire house or just individual apartments, if this is technically possible.

If no objection is made or if one is not granted, the destruction takes place by the army - usually in the early morning hours, for which the affected area is previously cordoned off and declared a military exclusion zone.

Technical implementation

for IDF modified Caterpillar D9 R

After blasting was initially the preferred method of implementation, from 1993 bulldozers were used to destroy the buildings, as this did not affect neighboring buildings. In recent years, under the influence of court decisions, often only the affected apartments have been made uninhabitable in apartment buildings, for example by sealing them with concrete.

Temporal sequence

According to the Israeli Committee against House Demolition, Israel has destroyed around 12,000 Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories since the occupation began in 1967, including 740 during the Oslo peace process .

First intifada

By the end of 1991, more than 300 apartments were destroyed or sealed in the First Intifada . That left around 2,000 people homeless.

Initially, the destruction took place shortly after the identification and arrest of a person without legal proceedings, before a court hearing, where the actual (often only minor) punishment, but also an acquittal, then occurred. Also completely innocent were affected, such as the landlords and neighbors, since the destruction of the houses was carried out with minimal warning (the residents had to vacate the building within less than an hour) and with no consideration for the environment by blasting.

Second intifada

In the Second Intifada , suicide bombers ' houses were destroyed automatically , prompting families to completely evacuate their apartments immediately after an attack by a family member, even windows and doors were removed. In the first few years there were compensation payments from the National Authority and other organizations and states. Then Israel successfully prevented these flows of money (suspension of Israeli transfer payments to the Palestinian Authority, monitoring of the Palestinian banking system, confiscation of funds in suspicious accounts) and compensation no longer arrived. As a result, more and more families were ready to report their children before a planned attack. Nevertheless, an Israeli commission found that there was insufficient deterrent effect, and on February 18, 2005, the Chief of Staff Mofaz announced a stop to the automatic demolition of houses after suicide attacks.

Since 2000 more and more houses have been destroyed when fugitives hide in them, so that house searches with endangerment of soldiers are not necessary. In some cases, those wanted were killed in the rubble, but also roommates who could not leave the house in time.

After two Israeli soldiers were lynched by a Palestinian crowd in Ramallah at the beginning of the second Intifada in October 2000 , the Voice of Palestine radio station broadcast the Friday sermon of Sheikh Ahmad Abu Halabiya, chairman of the Fatwa Council of the Palestinian Authority , in who defended the lynchings and called for the killing of all Jews wherever they were found. Israel therefore blamed the broadcaster for the ensuing wave of escalation. An Israeli Air Force helicopter fired at Voice of Palestine transmitters. In January 2002, Israel justified an attack by its ground forces on the station by calling for violence. They first evacuated the five-story transmitter building and then set it on fire with several explosive devices. Previously, six people were killed and 30 injured in a Palestinian attack on a family reunion in Israel. Since the establishment of the station had been funded by the EU, the then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had to personally defend the action.

On September 10, 2003, an eight-story high-rise building with 26 apartments was blown up in Hebron , leaving 68 people homeless. According to the Israeli army, the destruction took place because the house belonged to the brothers Abdulla and Schafik Qawasmeh, who were involved in planning several attacks and dispatched numerous terrorists against Israel. According to the residents of the house, however, it belonged to extended relatives of the brothers who would never have lived there themselves. The widely ramified Qawasmeh clan is the Hamas offshoot in the West Bank and wants to drive the Jews out of the country and destroy Israel in order to establish an Islamic state there. 17 clan members have committed suicide attacks since 2000, killing 120 Israelis. There were also assassins from outside the family who were commissioned by the Qawasmeh leaders to carry out attacks. Abdulla Qawasmeh was considered the godfather of Hebron and was killed in 2003. His son-in-law Marwan Qawasmeh is considered to be one of the two perpetrators who kidnapped and murdered three Jewish youths and thus sparked the war between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014 with over 2,000 dead.

In 2004, near Chan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, in the so-called Austrian district (Al-Haj Al-Nemsawi) on the border with Egypt (next to the Philadelphi Route ), a number of houses that had been financed by Austrian development aid were destroyed.

From September 29, 2000 to September 28, 2007, according to PCHR (Palestinian Center for Human Rights), 2,991 houses were completely destroyed and 2,870 partially destroyed, plus 735 production facilities. As of 2005, 270 homes had been destroyed as a punishment for attacks (under Regulation 119).

Suspension of destruction between 2005 and 2014

Since, according to the findings of an internal investigation (Shani Commission), the demolitions of houses heated up the climate of reciprocal violence far more than they served as a deterrent, Israel decided at the beginning of 2005 to no longer use the method as a punishment against suicide bombers, but decided to continue this practice in special cases. Destruction for reasons of building law and for safety reasons remains unaffected by this decision.

When a Palestinian from East Jerusalem shot and killed eight people in the Merkas HaRaw Kook massacre on March 6, 2008 , his house was not destroyed, despite strong demands from parts of the Israeli public.

After an assassination attempt with an excavator on July 2, 2008, in which three Israelis were killed on Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a legal opinion as to whether it was possible to destroy the home of the assassin, who was also from East Jerusalem. When a similar incident occurred three weeks later by an East Jerusalemite, similar voices were raised. The Supreme Court finally ruled in March 2009 that only the part of the house that the first excavator driver had lived in should be made uninhabitable. This happened on April 7th, 2009 by demolishing only the first floor.

During Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January 2009, the Israeli forces used house demolitions to avoid their own losses. Suspicious buildings were immediately fired at with a rocket and two tank shells and the remains were rolled over with the bulldozer. This not only left considerable damage to the civilian infrastructure, but also claimed civilian casualties as the evacuation of residents was not always guaranteed.

Current situation

In June 2014, the Israeli Security Cabinet decided to resume house demolitions in the course of the search for three kidnapped Israelis and on the occasion of an attack with a gun on a police officer. At a hearing before the Supreme Court, the policeman's widow demanded the demolition of the house of her husband's only accused murderer. The state argued that the current surge in attacks calls for a return to this form of deterrence. HaMoked's objection was dismissed. The house near Hebron was then destroyed two days later, and the half of the house belonging to the uninvolved brother, who is also the house owner, also became uninhabitable.

On June 30, 2014, the homes of two Palestinian refugees accused of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli schoolchildren in Hebron were blown up.

At the beginning of July the army decided to consistently use house demolition again as a punishment. Even the houses of convicted assassins in cases up to three years ago are said to be affected.

During Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the houses of Hamas representatives were destroyed with no intention of meeting those who lived there. The residents were even asked to leave the building by telephone. This was followed by a final warning by tapping the roof with a small missile without a warhead. Only then was the missile with the warhead used. The reason for the destruction of the private house in such a case is that it would be used as the person's military headquarters. For the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, however, it is questionable whether these air strikes on houses would be in accordance with martial law and human rights, since they are not considered military targets.

In mid-November 2015, fearing for the family home in Hebron , a Palestinian betrayed his son, who had murdered two Israelis in an attack the day before.

On April 20, 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the houses of two accomplices in an attack in October 2015, in which a couple of settlers died, must not be destroyed because they did not carry out the attack themselves, but only procured money and weapons and theirs Family members were unaware of these activities. Destroying the house would be too great a punishment for the uninvolved roommates. The house of a third accomplice who had transported the assassins and hidden the weapons, however, was allowed to be destroyed because his involvement was serious. A judge from the college of three also spoke out against the third demolition of the house.

At the end of October 2017, then Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for house demolitions to be carried out when Israeli victims were seriously injured, and not only when the dead, as currently stipulated in the regulations.

On December 15, 2018, the army destroyed the four-story house of the Abu Hmeid family in the Amari refugee camp in Al-Bireh because a son was charged with killing a soldier the previous summer. The house had been demolished in 1990 and 2003 for the actions of other sons who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, and then rebuilt. Thus, in this case, there could be no question of a deterrent effect of house demolition. In this case, too, the family vowed to rebuild the house immediately.

Criticism and protests

Human rights organizations such as the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and B'Tselem support those affected legally and also with reconstruction. Foreign activists also try again and again to prevent destruction through blockades, the best known case is that of ISM activist Rachel Corrie , who died in the Gaza Strip in the process. After the destruction had primarily been carried out with bulldozers from Caterpillar Inc since 2003 , attempts were made to hold the supplier and the US government, with whose military aid, the deliveries responsible. In September 2007, an appeals court dismissed Rachel Corrie's family's lawsuit on the grounds of interfering with government concerns. The international protest organization Stop CAT regularly organizes demonstrations against the supplies to the Israeli army. On February 6, 2006, the General Synod of the Church of England, UK, decided to sell its £ 2.5 million stock in Caterpillar in order not to "participate in companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation". In 2007, the World Council of Churches, in support of the Palestinian people, called for a boycott of companies that “ make money by supplying security systems for Israeli settlements ” that have been set up in the West Bank , under international law, in violation of international law . The company Caterpillar was expressly mentioned .

Peace organizations such as Shalom Achshaw criticized that Regulation 119 was only applied to Palestinian terrorists and not to violent criminals from the ranks of the radical Jewish settler movement. At a court hearing on August 6, 2014, the father of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive by Jewish extremists in response to the triple murder of Jewish youth by Hamas officials, demanded that the homes of the three murderers, one of them in an Israeli settlement, should also be destroyed. Following the conviction of the perpetrators, he filed a corresponding application with the Supreme Court in July 2016 after all calls for equal treatment of Jewish perpetrators had been rejected. The Ministry of Defense states that no symmetry is necessary for Jewish assassins because there is no need for a corresponding deterrent to Jews. In November 2016, the Supreme Court requested the state to provide an official explanation of this rationale in order to rule on the matter.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Amnesty International : Israel and the Occupied Territories: Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property. Report MDE 15/033/2004
  2. ↑ Israeli authorities must stop demolitions of Palestinian homes , Amnesty International . June 16, 2010. 
  3. ↑ BBC News: Israel limits house demolitions February 17, 2005.
  4. ↑ Oslo agreements: Area A, B and C (English) , UN - Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Archived from the original on July 3, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2010. 
  5. ↑ Markus Rosch: tagesschau.de
  6. ^ Jewish settlers clear the rubble of a demolished house in the settlement of Mizpe Yitzhar, near the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. Israeli security forces demolished two structures in an unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank. (AP Photo / Sebastian Scheiner)
  7. ↑ Tensions build in Palestinian neighborhood over plans to demolish 22 houses (English) , The Washington Post . July 1, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2010. 
  8. ↑ Al-Hadidiyeh, February 2010: Israel effectively pressuring Palestinian Bedouin community to leave the Jordan Valley (English) , B'Tselem . Retrieved June 10, 2010. 
  9. ^ Two dead in protests in Bedouin village , Israel network on January 19, 2017
  10. ↑ Magda Albrecht: Destruction of a Bedouin village in the Naqab / Negev desert - a chronology. In: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Israel Office. February 23, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2017 .
  11. ↑ "We didn't even know that a tent needed a building permit." Grünhelm founder criticizes Israel's approach. Rupert Neudeck in conversation with Christoph Heinemann , Deutschlandradio . June 4, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2010. 
  12. ↑ UNESCO Director-General welcomes Israel Supreme Court decision to save historical houses in Old City of Hebron (English) , UNESCOPRESS. February 14, 2003. Retrieved July 17, 2010. 
  13. ↑ International Humanitarian Law: Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, August 12, 1949
  14. ↑ IDF Begins Demolishing Home of Barkan Factory Attack Assailant , Ha-Aretz on December 17, 2018
  15. ^ Israel issues punitive demolition order for Palestinian family , Ma'an on November 6, 2018.
  16. ↑ Johannes Zang: Flowing boundaries between resistance and terror. In: The Parliament 36/2006, ISSN  0479-611X
  17. ^ David McDowall: The Palestinians. Minority Rights, London 1995, ISBN 1-873194-90-0 , p. 101
  18. ↑ The worst few seconds of my life, Yusif Al-Hiraymi
  19. ^ New York Times : Israel Halts Decades-Old Practice Of Demolishing Militants' Home. February 18, 2005
  20. ↑ Haaretz
  21. ^ William A. Omre Jr. A Parallel Mideast Battle: Is It News or Incitement? New York Times October 24, 2000
  22. ^ Wording of the address by Ahmad Abu Halabiya, MEMRI Special Dispatch No.138 of October 13, 2000
  23. ↑ “Retaliation: Israel destroys Arafat's radio station” , in: Spiegel Online , January 19, 2002.
  24. ↑ UNO-UNISPAL  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / domino.un.org  
  25. ↑ BBC February 21, 2008
  26. ^ Haaretz , September 11, 2003
  27. ↑ Vanessa Schlesier and Michael Borgstede: The family that brings terror , Die Welt from August 1, 2014
  28. ^ Stories beneath the Khan Younis rubble Mifta.org on October 7, 2004
  29. ↑ Health situation report on Khan Younis ( Memento from August 20, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ), UNISPAL on January 1, 2005
  30. ^ Matthew B. Stannard: THE DISENGAGEMENT / 'When they leave, we live' / Palestinians have yet to truly feel effects of withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza, but there's a sense of hope for the future. San Francisco Chronicle, August 21, 2005, accessed August 21, 2015 .
  31. ^ Palestinian Center for Human Rights: Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. ( Memento of January 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) No. 39/2007
  32. ↑ Haaretz: Bulldozer driver on downtown J'lem rampage leaves 3 dead, 80 injured. ( Memento from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) July 3, 2008
  33. ↑ BBC News: Israel limits house demolitions February 17, 2005
  34. ↑ a b Haaretz: Police kill Palestinian assailant at demolition of terrorist's home. April 7, 2009
  35. ↑ Haaretz: ANALYSIS / Using aggressive tactics in Gaza to save soldiers' lives. ( Memento of January 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) January 7, 2009
  36. ↑ Haaretz: IDF officer: 'It will take many years to restore' bomb-wracked Gaza. ( Memento of January 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) January 8, 2009
  37. ↑ Israel to renew demolition of terrorists' homes , Jerusalem Post on June 23, 2014
  38. ^ Court implies it won't block demolition of alleged Passover-eve terrorist's home , Jerusalem Post on June 30, 2014
  39. ↑ IDF razes home of alleged Passover-eve terrorist , Jerusalem Post on July 2, 2014
  40. ^ IDF demolishes family home of Palestinian suspected in cop killing , Ha-Aretz on July 3, 2014
  41. ^ IDF blast their way into homes of suspected kidnappers, close off Hebron , Jerusalem Post on July 1, 2014
  42. ↑ Dead teenagers: Israel retaliates in Gaza , the press on July 1, 2014
  43. ^ IDF planning to demolish homes of dozens of Palestinian militants in West Bank , Ha-Aretz on July 4, 2014
  44. ^ Israeli army says the killing of 8 Gazan family members was in error , Ha-Aretz on July 10, 2014
  45. ↑ UN criticizes the bombing of residential buildings , ORFonline on July 12, 2014
  46. ^ Shin Bet Arrests Suspect in West Bank Shooting That Killed Israeli Father and Son , Ha-Aretz on November 16, 2015
  47. ^ Israeli Court Orders Halt to Demolition of Terror Accomplices's Homes , Ha-Aretz on April 21, 2016
  48. ^ Israel Mulls Demolishing Homes of Terrorists Causing Serious Injury, Not Only Death , Ha-Aretz on October 29, 2017
  49. ↑ Deterrence? Israel Demolishes Palestinian Assailant's Home - for the Third Time , Ha-Aretz on December 16, 2018
  50. ↑ center for constitutional rights : Corrie et al. v. Caterpillar , September 19, 2007.
  51. ^ The Guardian February 7, 2006
  52. ^ Palaestina.org: Theologian supports boycott call of the church council. June 22, 2007.
  53. ↑ Mohammed Abu Khdeir Murdered Palestinian teen's father: Burn my son's killers and destroy their homes , Ha-Aretz on August 6, 2014
  54. ^ Parents of East Jerusalem Teen Ask Court to Demolish Jewish Killers' Homes , Ha-Aretz, July 7, 2016
  55. ^ High Court Asks Israel Why Jewish Terrorists 'Homes Aren't Razed Like Palestinians' , Ha-Aretz on November 24, 2016

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