On December 31, 2015, HaMoked submitted to the military an
objection to the punitive demolition order delivered on the day before to the family of the suspect in an attack against Israelis, perpetrated in Gush Etzion on November 19, 2015. The
order was issued for one of the two apartments on the middle floor of the family’s three-floor building – owned by the suspect’s father – without clarifying which of the two apartments is the target. In one of the two apartments live the suspect’s parents with three of their children – two of them minors; in the other apartment live the suspect’s brother, his wife and two small children.
In the objection, HaMoked stressed that the suspect had actually lived in an apartment on the ground floor of the building, and not in either of the two apartments on the middle floor – it was unclear which of the two apartments was targeted under the demolition order. HaMoked held that this was sufficient grounds for canceling the order, which in any event was an illegal and unbalanced act of punishment. HaMoked added that, according to the expert engineering opinion it had commissioned, implementing the order in its current form, might leave the entire extended family without a roof over their heads – thirteen innocent people, including small children. This, given the likelihood of heavy damage to the entire building as a result of the demolition of one of the middle-floor apartments.
HaMoked also asserted that during the military survey of the home on November 20, 2015,
soldiers vandalized the apartment of the father of the family and caused damage beyond repair to items of property. Thus, already at this stage, the rights of innocent people had been illegally violated – this, alongside the inherent violation of basic rights caused by punitive home demolition, contrary to international humanitarian law. HaMoked added that the demolition of the home was all the more unbalanced given the heavy punishment the suspect would receive in the event he was convicted.
HaMoked noted that the military order was delivered without an engineering opinion produced by the military or the planned methods of demolition; HaMoked also pointed out the substantial damage the other apartments in the building are likely to sustain from the demolition of a middle-floor apartment in the family’s residence.
