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No to Applying the Home Demolition Policy to Arab Citizens

ACRI


© Makkis | Dreamstime.com
© Makkis | Dreamstime.com

Following reports about the government's intention to examine the possibility of demolishing homes of families of Arab citizens involved in, or suspected of involvement in, terror attacks, the Association for Civil Rights appealed to the Minister of Defense and the Government's Legal Advisor calling for this not to be implemented. The appeal includes a review of the punitive house demolition policy towards Palestinians and calls by Israel’s Supreme Court judges to re-examine the policy, given that house demolitions primarily harm the rights of innocent family members and neighbors, and there is no evidence that it acts as a deterrence.  

  

Until now, Regulation 119 of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, has been implemented against families of Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem who were involved in, or suspected of involvement in, terror attacks: houses are demolished or are fully or partially sealed. The government is now examining the possibility of applying this regulation to families of Arab citizens. Attorneys Abir Joubran and Yael Seidemann wrote that the use of Regulation 119 of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, for demolishing or sealing houses is illegal: it constitutes collective punishment; goes against fundamental principles of Israeli constitutional and administrative law; and violates international human rights and humanitarian laws. 

  

The appeal further stated that it is clear that the intention to expand the use of home demolitions toward citizens is discriminatory, as it is directed only at families from Arab society in Israel, and not toward perpetrators of terror attacks from Jewish society. This is illegal and systematic discrimination, intended to demonize Arab citizens of Israel as internal enemies, against whom all restraint can be abandoned. 

  

ACRI’s appeal, October 15, 2024 (Heb)

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