Comment on In razing homes, Israel revives tough punishment

In razing homes, Israel revives tough punishment

JERUSALEM (AP) — In razing family homes of Palestinian attackers, Israel is reviving a draconian punishment it largely halted a decade ago as ineffective and counterproductive. Israel says it is resuming the demolitions — condemned by human rights groups as a violation of international law — because it needs more tools to stop a recent wave of Palestinian attacks on Jews. [...] arguments elicit anger and defiance in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, home of six recent assailants, including two cousins who killed five people in a synagogue last week. Human rights groups say razing homes as a deterrent amounts to collective punishment and violates the rules that govern occupied territories, such as east Jerusalem — captured by Israel in 1967, along with the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians in the city complain of official discrimination and fear Israel is marginalizing them further with settlements and a separation barrier slicing through Arab neighborhoods. Religious passions among Muslims — the vast majority of the city's Palestinians — have been stoked by demands from some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition to allow Jewish worship at a major Jerusalem shrine that is run by Muslims but is sacred to both faiths. Last week, cousins Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, wielding meat cleavers, knives and a handgun killed four Jewish worshippers and a policeman in the synagogue attack. Cabinet minister Yaakov Peri, a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, said lone assailants can't be stopped with conventional means.

 

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