JENIN, The family of Mahmoud Ghaleb Jaradat, a Palestinian political prisoner in Israeli jails, was informed today of an Israeli military order to punitively demolish their home in the town of Silat al-Harithiya, to the west of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank.
The Jaradat family said they were informed by Israeli human rights group HaMoked of the punitive Israeli demolition order, after a petition submitted by the rights group against a previous demolition order was rejected by an Israeli court.
The family were first informed of a demolition order last month, but they were hopeful to get the order abolished under HaMoked’s petition.
Israeli occupation authorities have long used to punitively demolish the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis, a policy that Israel does not apply to Israeli settlers who are involved in fatal attacks against Palestinians.
The policy has been widely condemned by human rights groups as a collective punishment and a war crime.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, says: “The people who bear the brunt of the [punitive] demolitions are relatives – including women, the elderly, and children – whom Israel does not suspect of involvement in any offense.”
“In the vast majority of cases, the person whose actions prompted the demolition was not even living in the house at the time of the demolition,” adds the group.
“The official objective of the house demolition policy is deterrence … yet the deterrent effect of house demolitions has never been proven.”
Source: Palestinian News & Information News Agency