feature
Why Does Israel
DE MOLIS H HOU SES
After Terrorist Attacks?
Ron Kampeas | JTA
L ess than a hour after a terror attack in eastern
Jerusalem on Feb. 10 killed three people,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
delivered a succinct message: Destroy the Palestinian
attacker’s home.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided to
take immediate action to seal and demolish the
home of the terrorist,” said the statement from
Netanyahu’s offi ce.

Home demolition orders have almost become a
matter of course following Palestinian attacks. They
don’t usually make headlines, nor do they tend to
spark public outcry. For decades, Israel has used the
tactic as a routine instrument of punishment, claiming
18 FEBRUARY 23, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
that the eff ect of tearing down the homes of terrorists
deters future attacks.

But critics question that claim, and say that home
demolitions constitute collective punishment that
violates international law. Yet at a moment of deep
political strife in Israel, the home demolition practice,
like many others related to security, generates little
political opposition. And while the Israeli Supreme
Court, whose power Israel’s right-wing government
hopes to limit, can delay home demolitions, it almost
always ultimately permits them to go forward.

Here’s how the practice of Israeli home demolition
began, how it’s viewed in Israel and abroad, and how
it may be changing under Israel’s new government.

Why does Israel destroy the homes of
terrorists? Israel began demolishing homes of Palestinian
attackers after it captured the West Bank and
eastern Jerusalem, along with other territories, in
the 1967 Six-Day War. Since then, according to a
2019 assessment by the Israel Democracy Institute,
Israel has demolished some 2,000 homes due to
terrorism. The demolitions have taken place in the
West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, not within Israel’s
internationally recognized borders.

Israel claims that demolishing the homes of
terrorists acts as a deterrent, a rationale cited last
month in a bill introduced by lawmaker Eliahu Revivo,
Photo by Salih Zeki Fazlioglu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Relatives of Palestinian Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, blamed for killing two Israelis in a deadly vehicular attack last month, inspect their family home after it was
destroyed by Israeli forces in Silwan neighborhood, eastern Jerusalem on Nov. 19, 2014.