Israel is planning to employ a policy of collective punishment by destroying the family homes of two Palestinians convicted of murdering Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved an intelligence recommendation to raze the houses of Hakim and Ajmad Awad, who are now serving life sentences for murdering five Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in March 2011.
Israel officially abandoned the once common practice of punitive demolitions back in 2005 after widespread international condemnation of the illegal practice. But now Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, recommended the practice be revived.
The agency made the recommendation on the grounds that the families helped destroy evidence related to the case. But further justified it by claiming it would discourage “potential terrorists” from mounting similar attacks.
But destroying the homes of the families of the Awad’s, rendering their wives and children homeless, is a form of collective punishment prohibited by international law. The fourth Geneva Convention disgnates it a war crime.
“No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed,” it reads. “Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
“The perpetrators have already been arrested and convicted,” said Jeff Halper, the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. “It makes no sense from a military logic,” he said. “It is political logic as we are getting close to elections and the setter lobby has more clout now and is pressing the political echelons in terms of revenge.”
In reality, Israel has not abandoned practices of collective punishment against Palestinians. The economic blockade on Gaza, which worsened following the election of Hamas, also qualifies, as a UN panel found in September. But razing homes of Palestinians in retaliation for the crimes of others is another big step in the wrong direction.
Collective punishment…wasn't this the modus operandi of the Nazis punishing their victims? Strange world that looks like it has come the full circle…
Once again Israel proves it does not share our Western heritage.
I wonder, do you think they bulldoze the houses of non-Muslims or non-Christians guilty of committing heinous crimes?
There is no justification for abrogating the Geneva Conventions which Israel has consistently done since first declaring nationhood. The destruction of homes and property should likewise be deemed apropriate punishment for all Israeli settlers who kill Palestinians and destroy their property. Israel is not a democracy. Consequently, Israel does not practice equitable justice for all who occupy the land of Palestine.
This 'punishment' makes perfect sense to me…
For example: if a married man commits pedophilia, then it's obviously the man's wife's fault for not satisfying him in some way. The wife should be punished, along with his entire family, as well as the man's neighbors in the immediate surrounding community. Everyone shouldn't have been sitting around "looking the other way" (perhaps even encouraging him and/or covering his tracks) while he went around sexually assaulting children. If we had more of these "guilt by association" laws in the US, we'd have a lot less crime…in fact, we'd have a lot less problems in general…
This will teach the Islamos to keep their murders under control. The two men who were convicted of the actual crimes are serving life sentences, so razing the houses obviously mean nothing to them from a practical sense of 'deterrence', or even really "punishment" for that matter. But it's not sufficient to punish the actual criminals…it's the family and broader community that needs to learn a lesson about this.
Another parallel is: if there is an attack on Israeli civilians via a bombing of some sort, the appropriate 'reaction' is similar: send out the choppers and kill a bunch of Palestinian civilians on a greater magnitude… This isn't brain surgery… This tactic is a lot more effective than many realize and credit. Suicide bombers will think twice if they know after they commit suicide, Israel will kill a bunch of people they don't know…
What's complicated about this?
You are one sick puppy. Maybe your parents should have been punished for giving life to twisted sicko like you. Nuff said.
AAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh yes….. We have seen these policies before……. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung (English: "kin liability") was a form of collective punishment practised in Nazi Germany towards the end of the Second World War. It was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to arrest and sometimes execution. Many people who had committed no crimes were arrested and punished under Sippenhaft laws introduced after the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. A law of February 1945 also threatened death to the relatives of military commanders who showed what Hitler regarded as cowardice or defeatism in the face of the enemy."
What about the Sabra and Shatila massacre……….. of between 762 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, by a Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia……..
Did ANY of the killers or their Israeli enablers have their homes razed…??
"The Israel Defense Forces surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps, controlled access to them, and facilitated the massacre by firing illuminating flares over the camps.[5][6] In 1982, an independent commission chaired by Sean MacBride concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were, directly or indirectly, responsible for the events.[7] The Israeli government established the Kahan Commission to investigate, and in early 1983 it found that Israeli military personnel were aware that a massacre was in progress without taking serious steps to stop it. Therefore it regarded Israel as having indirect responsibility." [Wikipedia] See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_ma…
Not only Geneva proscribed Nazi inspired "Sippenhaftung" but South African inspired [APARTHEID] Demolitions as punishment for Palestinians but …. NOT for Israelis and their co-conspirators……..
HEY!!! ………… "What's complicated about this?"
Suicide bombers are the end results of years of Israeli terror, subjugation, indefinite detention, and theft of land/resources. As abhorrent as suicide bombings are, they targeted the wrong people. The IDF, Shin Beit, and all of the war criminals in the Knesset should have been the targets since they instigated all of the crimes against the Palestinian people. If these cretins would have been targeted, and taken out…Israel would be a better place, and the whole world would agree…
Is there any limit as to the war crimes israel and america commits and get away scot free only two bit third world leaders get to go to the war crimes tribunal.
This helps clear Muslims out of the West Bank. Of course they'll do it.
War crime? So what. They do that every day. It means nothing to them, kind of satisfying to them.
When dealing with "Palestinian" terrorists, the rules have to be bent. You're dealing with a people who stabs babies while sleeping in their cribs.
I thought they tossed them in the air and caught them on bayonets…or was it throwing them out of incubators by the thousands…I get so confused. I guess "baby killer" is the false accusation one uses when a phony WMD charge won't stick…sheesh.
You guys at hasbara central are slipping. The world is now seeing through your propaganda. From now on you'll need to work harder.
Israel is a state without a moral compass, and disdain for all people, and countries who do not adhere to their biblical folklore dogma. They do not respect the rule of law, or equal rights, because if they did, Israel would be a country with a moral compass, and without its full embrace of state sponsered terrorism. The settlers themsleves have been allowed to become the monsters they are curtosy of every Israeli government since 1967. There will come a day that blowback towards the Israeli state will be so deadly that it will cease to exist as it does today.
Years ago they said they were tearing down homes on West Bank as collective punishment for terrorism. Of course the terrorism has stopped yet israel is still tearing down homes bringing into question both irsraels policy of tearing down homes as collective punishment and, indeed, the source of the terrorism itself.