Occupied Jerusalem — Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday he wants to expand the controversial policy of demolishing homes of Palestinians involved in fatal attacks to include perpetrators who seriously wound Israelis.
Israel says the demolition policy, in place since 1967, is a means of deterring future attackers.
However, the policy is a form of collective punishment, forcing family members to suffer, and illegal under international law.
Critics also question whether the policy acts as a deterrent or if it creates more potential attackers due to the anger it provokes.
The minister has instructed the army and defence ministry to “examine the possibility to demolish the homes of terrorists who carried out attacks in which Israeli civilians were seriously wounded”.
“There’s no difference between an attack that ends in murder and one that ends in a serious injury,” Lieberman said. “In both cases the homes of the terrorists must be demolished.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the resumption of demolitions in the occupied West Bank as a policy in 2014.
According to Israeli NGO Hamoked, since renewing the policy in 2014 and until the end of 2016, Israel has carried out punitive demolitions of 35 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and sealed another seven homes in the two occupied territories.
—AFP
