Following recent media reports that the Israel Security Service has recommended the demolition of two homes in 'Awarta village near Nablus belonging to relatives of two assailants, HaMoked has now appealed to Yehuda Weinstein, Israel's Attorney General, requesting that the policy of
punitive house demolitions not be renewed.
HaMoked asserts that the demolition of homes is a cruel, inhuman and immoral act, inflicting willful and calculated harm against innocent people, contrary to international humanitarian law, which prohibits collective punishment and needless destruction of property. Furthermore, the destruction of a home constitutes a critical violation of the family members' rights to family life, housing, and a life in dignity, and as such conflicts with Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and other Israeli laws.
Furthermore, HaMoked asserts that the use of punitive house demolitions has never been proven effective, and recalls that in 2005, the Chief of General Staff had adopted the conclusions of the
Shani Military Committee which recommended that use of house demolitions as a deterrent should be abandoned, because "the IDF, in a Jewish and democratic state, cannot tread the line of legality, let alone, the line of legitimacy!!!"
(sic).
It should be noted that the assailants themselves were convicted in a military court, and sentenced to decades in prison. The demolition of the houses would leave two families with minor children homeless and destitute.