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Two days ago, I joined millions in their condemnation of the barbaric Synagogue attack in Jerusalem. But, I also expressed dismay at the Israeli government’s decision to demolish the homes of the attackers’ families, in effect punishing human beings for “the crime” of being related to a criminal or terrorist.
A powerful voice in condemning the attacks was J Street:
We are horrified and appalled by today’s gruesome attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem during morning prayers that left four dead, and several others wounded. We condemn this act of terror in the strongest possible terms.
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Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, three of whom are US citizens and one a British citizen, as well as their families. We wish the injured a speedy recovery. We stand with Israel, Jews around the world and all who care about peace at this moment of grief.
J Street also rejected comments by some Palestinian officials “attempting to justify this attack as a response to conditions in the West Bank or recent Israeli actions.”
“There can be no moral equivalence here: murder of innocent civilians is murder, made especially abhorrent by the fact that the targets were praying in a synagogue,” J Street said.
In a separate column, at San Diego Jewish World, Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, reiterated J Street’s condemnation of the massacre:
We are still reeling from Tuesday’s horrible terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue in which five people were killed during morning prayers, leaving four widows and 24 fatherless children on a single street in the neighborhood of Har Nof.
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How are we in the pro-peace community to respond to such an outrage, and to the wave of violence, hatred and incitement sweeping Jerusalem? There is a proper way – and an improper way.
Ben-Ami then gives several examples of how Israelis properly reacted to the murders.
But he also reels against the “improper way” — such as the destruction of the homes of the terrorists’ families.
The Atlantic recalls previous Israeli policy:
As the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports, more than 650 Palestinian homes were either sealed or demolished from 2001 until 2005, leaving the families of attackers homeless.
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The policy was discontinued after an army committee determined that razing homes not only failed to deter attacks, but also stoked Palestinian hatred of Israel. House demolitions, declared legal by Israeli courts, were also criticized internationally by the United Nations and others for smacking of collective punishment for family members who may have had no connection to the attacks.
CBS also recalls the suspension of the policy “after officials determined it was not an effective deterrent.”
Nevertheless, after the Synagogue massacre, Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of the attackers’ families.
But even before the execution of this latest order:
Israeli police showed up after midnight last night at the home of the Palestinian man who plowed his car into pedestrians last month, killing a baby and a young woman. They expelled around 50 people and demolished the five-story structure. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “You need a means of deterrence against the next suicide attacker. When he knows that his house, the house in which his family lives, will be demolished, this will have an impact.”
However, Ben-Ami continues, “he exact opposite will happen. Such acts only provoke the next attack, as the Israeli Commission that investigated the practice found in 2005. This practice is a serious human rights violation; it is collective punishment enacted without due process against individuals who have committed no crime.
On the other hand, the Atlantic says, “some suggest house demolitions are also designed to offset the economic benefits of committing an attack,” i.e. the financial assistance Palestinian terrorists as well as surviving families allegedly receive.
The Atlantic quotes an Israeli official as saying, “On the Palestinian side you have a whole package of incentives to carry out terrorist attacks, such as if we arrest the terrorist, their families get a generous allowance from the PA.”
The Atlantic continues, “On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the policy, saying in a statement, ‘We have nothing against the residents of eastern Jerusalem but we will not tolerate attacks on our citizens and we will act against those who do these things and against those engaged in incitement.’”
Then, today, Netanyahu said:
“We should not discriminate against an entire public because of a small minority that is violent and militant…The vast majority of Israeli-Arab citizens are law-abiding and we are acting resolutely against those who break the law…”
In light of his previous orders to demolish the homes of terrorists’ families, this exhortation sounds hollow and does nothing for the spouses, elderly parents and young sons and daughters of the attackers. In our society, these relatives would be assumed innocent until proven otherwise — just a little “technicality” called due process.
I am aware of the “eye for an eye” policy in the region, but this perverted expansion of that Biblical phrase, in my opinion, will never beget peace.
What a shame.
Lead image: www.shutterstock.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.