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The
Zionists have used the demolition and sealing of houses as a form of
collective punishment intended to break the spirit of the Intifada.
The Database Project on Palestinian Human Rights reported:
Collective punishment was a favorite technique of Nazi Germany in
occupied territories during World War II. It is also a favorite
technique of the Israeli government against Palestinians. In effect
since the occupation began, this technique is applied on a massive
scale during the Intifada. Aside from being inherently unfair, such
policies and practices which punish groups of people
indiscriminately as a method of collective repression are violations
of Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague
Regulations as well as international humanitarian law.
Perhaps the worst form of collective punishment practiced by Israeli
military authorities is the deliberate dynamiting and bulldozing of
family homes. This harsh action against innocent Palestinians has
been taken by the Israeli army since 1967 to punish whole families
for the suspected “ security crimes” of one family member. But
during 1988, house demolitions justified on the pretext that homes
were built without a military-issued license (routinely denied to
Palestinians since 1967) have been dramatically accelerated,
effectively punishing individual families and whole villages during
the Intifada. The contents of a house, nearby farm animals, orchards
and grape arbors, as well as neighbors’ houses are often destroyed
by the force of the blasts used by the Israeli army in areas of high
population concentration.
Demolitions are carried out soldiers as a major military operation.
The village is curfewed and the only warning targeted families
receive is a banging on the door by soldiers, shouting for the
family members to leave the house. At best twenty minutes is allowed
to empty the house of its contents before the charges are set or the
bulldozer begins its destructive work.
During the Intifada, up to March 1, 1990, 1228 Palestinian homes
have been demolished and 164 sealed, displacing more than 14,000
Palestinians. These families are given small emergency tents by
international relief organization and in effect become newly
impoverished refugees, when they had so recently been homeowners.
This destruction of property without any recourse is most shocking
in view of the fact that the Israeli authorities take no
responsibility for the displaced families, condemning them to an
unimagined level of poverty and hardship.
In
rural areas especially, Palestinian dwellings house extended
families. The family house is usually built of solid stone by hand
over a period of years. The destruction of such homes and their
contents represents a great emotional and financial loss in terms of
labor, materials and life investment. Such homes pass from
generation to generation. Frequently they have been in the same
family for over 100 years, many are older. Thus house demolition is
also the destruction of a historic and cultural heritage. That to
seems to be a goal of Israeli occupation: the eradication of
Palestinian culture and heritage. Thus depopulation by deportation,
internal removal, and population transfer by direct and indirect
coercive means, such as house demolition, is part of the deliberate
Israeli plan to transfer whatever is left of Palestine into an
exclusive Jewish state.
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