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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (30780)	5/26/2002 3:21:26 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I have been collecting news stories using Lexis-Nexis about the Israeli practice of destroying the homes of the families of suicide/homicide bombers. I am making excerpts of most of them but this one I thought was good enough to post in its entirety. Apparently it's all done with due process of law. The authorities collect DNA samples from the body of the bomber, then take DNA samples from the family, then get an official document allowing them to destroy the house, and the family has the right to appeal all the way up to the Israeli Supreme Court. Talk about collective insanity. I think this may help put into perspective the Saudi practice of giving money to the families of the bombers. It seems like charity to me, to help them relocate after their homes and belongings are destroyed by Israelis. >>Copyright 1994 The Baltimore Sun Company The Baltimore Sun October 24, 1994, Monday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: TELEGRAPH (NEWS), Pg. 1A LENGTH: 1093 words HEADLINE: Israel wrestles with penalty for bombing BYLINE: Doug Struck, Jerusalem Bureau of The Sun BODY: QALQILYA, Occupied West Bank -- Israel is confronting a moral question after its identification of last week's Tel Aviv bus bomber: Should a family be punished for the crimes of its son? Israel has evicted from their home 13 members of the family of Salah As-Souwi Nazal, 27, who appeared on a videotape vowing a suicide attack. Israel said yesterday that blood samples positively identified Mr. Nazal as the attacker who blew up Bus No. 5 Wednesday, killing himself and 22 others. The Israeli army now wants to blow up the Nazal family house, leaving homeless Nazal's parents, their nine children, a pregnant daughter-in-law and a grandson, age 2. Nazal's father, Abdel Rahim As-Souwi Nazal, says that his son has not lived at the house for seven months and that he does not support attacks on civilians. "It is clear to everyone, this is not fair," the elder Mr. Nazal said yesterday of his small, concrete house, now with tin plates nailed over the doors and windows. "We reject this type of violence. Why should me and my family suffer for this?" The army contends that house demolitions may deter terrorist acts. "If it is possible to deter a potential terrorist by sealing or destroying his house, we will prefer damage to property," said Lt. Col. Moshe Fogel, a spokesman for the army. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel disagrees with that approach. Despite the revulsion in Israel over the bus attack, the organization has volunteered legal assistance to the family of the suspected bomber. "We are representing innocent people," said ACRI's lawyer, Eliyahu Avraham. "And we are representing certain values of the Israeli legal system which we believe have to be upheld, even in the war against terrorism. "A central principle of the Jewish people is that the person who commits a crime is the one who is punished" Mr. Avraham told Israel Radio. "A son doesn't carry the crime of his father, the father doesn't carry the crimes of his son." Demolition tactic The tactic of demolition is not new to the Israeli army. In its attempt to put down Palestinian opposition to its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the army has fully or partly destroyed 489 homes since 1989, according to B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. It has sealed off with cinder blocks or steel plates 416 more houses, preventing either part or all of the house from being used, according to B'tselem. The Palestine Human Rights Commission, which also keeps statistics, has slightly higher totals. The tactic has long been protested by civil rights lawyers, who say it is a violation of the Geneva convention prohibiting an occupying army from punishing innocent civilians. Colonel Fogel replies that "the sealing and demolition of houses are carried out within the confines of the law and according to concepts that fit international law, which allows the demolition of houses for security purposes." Privately, army officials say, it is simply a tactic of punishment. "We will stretch the law to the edge," said one officer, speaking anonymously. "This isn't meant to increase Israel's popularity, but it does deter." "I think the assumption that there is any kind of deterrence against fanatically motivated religious suicide attackers in blowing up the house of their parents is a far-fetched assumption," replied Mr. Avraham. He noted that the government successfully opposed a court petition seeking to destroy the house of Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler who killed 29 Arabs in a Hebron mosque in February. In the town of Qalqilya, 15 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, Mr. Nazal wondered why deterrence is needed against him. He is a laborer with the town government and works for $ 8 a day. He has eight remaining children, ages 5 to 25. His oldest son is married, and the son's pregnant wife and 2-year-old child live in the family home. Family shut out On Friday, Israeli soldiers told the family to remove what belongings they have and then nailed tin sheets across the doors and windows of the home. Three Israeli soldiers stand watch from a nearby rooftop to see that the barriers are not removed. Authorities say they will bulldoze or use explosives on the house. The family's lawyers have appealed to the military commander, and ACRI says the next step will be a petition to the Supreme Court -- all likely within days. In the meantime, Mr. Nazal's sprawling family has squeezed in with a sister in the town. But it is a crowded, unworkable arrangement, he said. The house was sealed after Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist group that has claimed responsibility for the bus attack, gave journalists a homemade videotape of the younger Nazal. In it, the young man is holding an automatic rifle and calls himself a "living martyr." He bid goodbye to his family, cited verses from the Koran, and said that he would carry out a suicide attack against Israelis, although he did not specify what it would be. Strength of blast The bomb blast was so powerful that authorities have had difficulty identifying the remains of victims. They took blood samples from the senior Mr. Nazal when he went to the hospital in a futile quest to identify his son's body. Genetic markers from the father matched those of tissue found in the bus, proving that the younger Nazal was aboard, Israeli police said yesterday. Mr. Nazal is not convinced. He seemed bewildered yesterday when neighbors insisted on setting up a traditional house of condolence in the garage of a neighbor. Even as dozens of other men arrived to offer him condolences, Mr. Nazal said he was not certain that his son was the bomber or that he was dead. "It's not right what he did. But I don't want to lose my son. God knows if [the bomber] is my son or not. I still do not know," he said. Mr. Nazal said that his son was arrested several times for Hamas activities but that he usually was released quickly. The army came to arrest him seven months ago, but the young man had left the house two days earlier. Mr. Nazal said that he has not seen him since. A day ago, authorities took another son and a cousin into custody for questioning, Mr. Nazal said. Mr. Nazal seemed uncomfortable when some of the bearded young men who came to the condolence house congratulated him for having a son who is a "martyr" and when others passed out sweets to indicate that it was a cause for celebration. "I don't mix myself with this," he said. "I'm neither on one side or the other. I just want to raise my family." <<

To: LindyBill who wrote (30780)	5/26/2002 3:28:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>Copyright 1989 The New York Times Company The New York Times July 31, 1989, Monday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 1, Column 6; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1157 words HEADLINE: PALESTINIANS GAIN RIGHT TO CONTEST HOUSE DEMOLITIONS BYLINE: By JOEL BRINKLEY, Special to The New York Times DATELINE: JERUSALEM, July 30 BODY: Israel's Supreme Court ruled today that Palestinians accused of wrongdoing must be given time to appeal through the military and civilian courts before the army demolishes their homes. Until now, soldiers have usually blown up or bulldozed the homes of people accused of crimes within hours of the act, often before the accused had been formally charged. Family members often have had less than an hour to remove their furniture and personal belongings. The decision was the first since the Palestinian uprising began in which legal authorities intervened to limit army activity in the occupied territories. Civil libertarians called the ruling a landmark decision. Military's Reaction The army had no comment on the court decision, but defense officials, speaking privately, said they were angry. In recent weeks Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin has been trying to limit the right of appeal in similar matters, including deportations, to allow him greater power to fight the uprising. Justice Minister Dan Meridor of the Likud party, who has generally opposed Mr. Rabin's efforts to loosen some of the legal restraints on the army, said he did not disagree with the court decision. At the same time, though, Mr. Meridor said he accepted another of Mr. Rabin's suggestions, that the period of administrative detention in which suspects can be held without charges or trial, be extended from six months to a year. The change has not been formally made. Independent Judiciary Today's decision came in a unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel. The 11-member court rarely hears cases as a body; instead smaller panels issue decisions. Rulings are not always unanimous. The members of the Supreme Court, formally known as the High Court of Justice, are appointed by the Justice Ministry from among lower-court jurists. However, the court is generally independent and largely immune from political interference. Demolitions of houses have been one of the most heavily debated measures used to punish Palestinians for involvement in the uprising. Usually it is not those accused who are penalized, since in most cases they are either in jail or dead. Instead, most often it is the family of the accused who may be awakened by soldiers early in the morning, told they have an hour or less to remove their furniture and then forced to stand in the yard watching as soldiers place dynamite through the house and blow it up, often damaging or destroying adjacent houses as well. Sometimes instead of explosives, the army uses bulldozers to flatten homes. Major Tactic Against Uprising Since the uprising began almost 20 months ago, army statistics show that 230 homes have been blown up or bulldozed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and 102 more have been sealed with concrete and bricks to render them unusable. The most recent case occurred early this month, when the army blew up the house of Abdul al-Khadi Suleiman Ghneim, who is charged with steering a bus off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, killing 16 passengers, including an American and two Canadians. Fifteen people in Mr. Ghneim's extended family had lived in the four-room house in the Nuseirat refugee district of Gaza. In most cases, homes are blown up for offenses far less severe than the bus attack, usually not involving death or serious injury. Several houses have been blown up in error, the army has admitted, And in some cases the army has agreed to rebuild them. The United States, along with several other Western governments and human rights organizations, has often criticized Israel, saying that this form of summary, collective punishment should not be practiced in a democratic society. In defense of the policy, Israel points out that house demolitions were first carried out by the British when they ruled Palestine under an international mandate from the end of World War I until 1948. Beita Shooting Case The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an organization roughly similar to the American Civil Liberties Union, brought the case against the army a year ago. Although the association has long opposed house demoltions, the court action was largely a result of a case in the West Bank town of Beita. When a group of settlers hiked through Beita in April 1988, they were stoned by residents, and a young Israeli girl named Tirzah Porat was shot and killed. Israelis were enraged by the death; she was the first Israeli civilian killed in the uprising. The army immediately blew up the houses of 13 Beita residents and in the process damaged or destroyed several adjacent homes, too. But about 24 hours later it became clear that the girl was accidentally shot to death by one of her Israeli guards, not by a Palestinian. The association managed to get a restraining order to halt further house demolitions in Beita and later tried unsuccessfully to have the order extended to the rest of the territories, as well. So the suit was filed. Security Usually Paramount Joshua Schosfman, an association attorney who brought the suit, said he was surprised by the ruling. ''Even though we were convinced that legally we had a very strong case,'' he said, ''we know how difficult it is for the court during the time of a security crisis to intervene on security considerations.'' Several times in the past, the court has upheld the legality of house demolitions, and today's ruling said only that the punishment could not be carried out in a summary fashion. Homeowners must first be informed that they have a right to obtain a lawyer and file an appeal and then to plead the case through the military and civilian courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, before the demolition can be carried out. In serious cases, the court said, the army may seal off the house while the appeal is pending. 'Real People' A year ago, under threat of the lawsuit, the army informally agreed to allow appeals in some cases. In most cases where appeals were allowed, Mr. Schosfman said, ''the military authorities changed their minds. They'd seal the one room where the offender lived rather than destroy the house. It made them realize that it's not just a house but real people on the other side.'' <<

To: LindyBill who wrote (30780)	5/26/2002 4:15:08 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Caveat: the following news stories have been severely excerpted without any indication of where they were excerpted: >>COPYRIGHT 1980 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING SOCIETY THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR December 18, 1980, Thursday, Midwestern Edition SECTION: Opinion and Commentary; Pg. 23 HEADLINE: Why that Gulf war is not 'rational' BYLINE: By William R. Brown; William R. Brown is dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Central Connecticut State College. Much of what is now taking place in the Middle East brings to mind an old Arabic curse, "Yakhrub baytak" ("May God destroy your house"). Its implications go beyond the destruction of the building in which an enemy lives. It extends to the family and community of someone who expects to live his entire life in or close to the house in which he was born -- and most certainly with all other members of the community doing the same. The Israelis know the curse well. In a literal but also symbolic way they inflict punishment in their struggle for the West Bank by destroying with dynamite or a bulldozer the houses of those who are suspected of aiding PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) terrorists. This punishment has meaning that goes beyond the razing of a dwelling. Quite often it is meted out to parents whose sons are PLO activists. The psychology of the act is an Israeli dictum that parents who wish to avoid the loss cannot even have such sons in their homes. The blow being struck is against the concepts of family, community, and nation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1985 The Washington Post The Washington Post February 15, 1985, Friday, Final Edition SECTION: First Section; A17 LENGTH: 552 words HEADLINE: Israelis Kill 11 Guerrillas In Clash in S. Lebanon; Troops Scuffle With French U.N. Forces BYLINE: By Edward Walsh, Washington Post Foreign Service DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Feb. 14, 1985 BODY: Israeli troops killed 11 guerrillas today in one of the largest clashes in southern Lebanon in more than a year. In a separate incident, Israeli troops "forcibly removed" French U.N. soldiers trying to prevent the Israelis from demolishing homes of suspected guerrillas, a U.N. official said. Goksel said the confrontation occurred when the French soldiers sought to halt the destruction of homes. "There was a scuffle and strong arguments between the French and Israelis," he said, and the French officers were "forcibly removed" by the Israelis, who then used bulldozers to destroy three homes and a community center. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1982 The New York Times Company The New York Times July 3, 1982, Saturday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section 1; Page 1, Column 2; Foreign Desk HEADLINE: PILES OF RUBBLE WERE THE HOMES OF PALESTINIANS BYLINE: By DAVID K. SHIPLER, Special to the New York Times Since the guns fell silent in this region more than two weeks ago, the Israeli Army has systematically destroyed many of the Palestinians' houses that survived the battles, increasing the number of homeless families, many of them with children. Over the years the Palestinian guerrillas had adopted the practice of integrating military installations in the camps' civilian settlements. Israeli army demolition teams have been blowing up what they say are underground ''bunkers'' - the Palestinians call them ''shelters''- and that has meant taking the houses above too. Iagree, war is war,'' said Sami Masri, 29, a nurse. ''But I raise the white flag, and you destroy my house after that. I don't think that's right. If this happened in Israel, and the Arabs did it, I would say this is madness.'' Fate of a House Aisha Massal, a grandmother with a scarf around her head and a deeply lined face, had taken refuge in the shelter beneath her house when the attack began. After the battle had ended and she emerged, she was relieved to see that her house, which she had built with money sent by her son in Abu Dhabi, was still intact. After a while, the Israeli troops let her and her neighbors return for half an hour to take food from their houses for a few days, but they never said a thing about further destruction, she said, and so she left everything she owned inside. When she was allowed to return days later, her house was a pile of twisted slabs and chunks; a corner of a refrigerator stuck out from beneath one huge concrete at the edge of the pile, but she could not seem to look at it. ''I give the problem to Allah,'' she said. ''My house is gone, what can I do?'' A total of 112,000 Palestinians were registered by the United Agency as having lived in the Tyre and Sidon areas. The agency said that, as of June 23, before the demolition and bulldozing were completed, 60 of the houses in Rashidiye, 35 in Burj al-Shemali and almost all in Ein Khilweh had been destroyed. ''They are all terrorists,'' an army officer said, when asked why bulldozers were knocking down houses in which women and children were living. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1985 The Times Mirror Company Los Angeles Times March 20, 1985, Wednesday, Home Edition SECTION: Part 1; Page 1; Column 3; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1791 words HEADLINE: SHIELD: U.N. FORCE TAKES KEY ROLE AMID S. LEBANON VIOLENCE; U.N. ROLE: TRYING TO SHIELD LEBANESE FROM VIOLENCE BYLINE: By DAN FISHER, Times Staff Writer DATELINE: MAAROUB, Lebanon French troops and Israeli officers scuffled in the village of Borj Rahhal over Israel's plans to destroy three houses allegedly linked to the guerrilla resistance. Interrogators asked all the village men about him, and before the Israelis left at about 1 p.m., they bulldozed the house of Shehadi's 57-year-old father into a pile of dirt and concrete. His was not the house in which the assault rifles were found, U.N. officials said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1997 The Baltimore Sun Company The Baltimore Sun December 16, 1997, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: TELEGRAPH (NEWS), Pg. 1A HEADLINE: Bombing suspects'families pay price; Israel destroys home as terror 'deterrent' BYLINE: Ann LoLordo, SUN FOREIGN STAFF BODY: ASIRA SHAMALIYA, Occupied West Bank -- Fatima Yassin paid the price yesterday for her son's alleged role as one of two suicide bombers who killed 16 people in Jerusalem's central market this summer. At dawn, bulldozers operated by Israeli soldiers tore into the Yassins' stucco home in this Palestinian village north of Nablus. Yassin raised seven sons and six daughters in the house. Israel says Yassin's seven sons include Touwafik, 25, one of two suicide bombers who struck in Jerusalem's central market July 30. In addition to destroying the Yassin home, the Israelis destroyed the family home of another suspected bomber and sealed the houses of two other suspected terrorists. The actions came after Israel's Supreme Court rejected appeals by the four families to save their homes. Israel ordered the demolitions after genetic tests linked the families with the remains of the bombers responsible for the July market attack and the Aug. 31 explosion at the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall. Twenty-one people were killed in the two attacks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1994 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. The Toronto Star November 22, 1994, Tuesday, METRO EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A14 HEADLINE: 10,000 marchers cheer Arafat PLO leader wins massive support, but Gaza fears a civil war BYLINE: AP DATELINE: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip In another development, the Israeli army said last night it demolished part of the family home of a Palestinian who carried out the suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv bus last month, Reuters reports. It said a bulldozer wrecked sections of the home in the West Bank town of Qalqilia in which the bomber, Salah Nazzal, lived but spared parts of the house in which other family members lived. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1987 The Washington Post The Washington Post June 3, 1987, Wednesday, Final Edition SECTION: FIRST SECTION; PAGE A1 HEADLINE: Palestinians: The Bitter Survivors BYLINE: Patrick E. Tyler, Jonathan C. Randal, Washington Post Foreign Service DATELINE: AMMAN, Jordan The statistics of the occupation suggest a harsh environment for Palestinian youth: 250,000 Palestinians have been in Israeli prisons during their lifetimes; 1,215 have been deported or expelled; and 1,300 homes have been bulldozed as part of collective punishments imposed by the Israelis for acts of terror. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cpyright 1994 Newspaper Publishing PLC The Independent (London) November 23, 1994, Wednesday SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS PAGE; Page 13 HEADLINE: Mother rails at fate of Arab bomber BYLINE: SARAH HELM in Jerusalem Mrs Nazzal was trying to come to terms with the news that her son, Salah Nazzal, had been named as the suicide bomber who blew up a Tel Aviv bus, killing 22 Israelis. The bombing was carried out in the name of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in ''revenge'' for killings of Palestinians by Israelis. Yesterday, Mrs Nazzal watched on as Israel took its ''revenge'' against her entire family for the act of her son. An Israeli army bulldozer punished Mr and Mrs Nazzal and their five other children by flattening their house. The Nazzal family had lived in the building, little more than a shack, for two generations. But it took the bulldozer only a few minutes to erase any sign of habitation, leaving behind only a pile of rubble and mangled iron. ''Why would they want to destroy our house? What good would it do?'' she asked after first receiving the destruction order. The family appealed to the Israeli High Court, but this week the appeal was turned down, and the Israeli military authorities were given the go- ahead to destroy the house. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1996 Newsday, Inc. Newsday April 11, 1996, Thursday, NASSAU EDITION SECTION: VIEWPOINTS; Pg. A56 LENGTH: 789 words HEADLINE: Demolitions Destroy More Than Palestinian Homes BYLINE: By Barbara Nimri Azi. Barbara Nimri Aziz is a New York-based anthropologist and journalist. This appeared in the Christian Science Monitor. IT'S QUITE a spectacle, a Palestinian home being blown apart. Furniture, dishes and clothes, hastily removed, are deposited helter-skelter in the road. Villagers stand by, silent and grim. Armed soldiers are massed to prevent any disruption. Confused, awed children turn sullen. Americans are not accustomed to seeing Israel's "demolitions policy" at work. Most recently, this policy has been aimed at the families of suicide bombers. But all Palestinians are familiar with it. Perhaps it's happened to a neighbor or someone else they know, or perhaps they've experienced it themselves: They're hauled out of the house in the early morning and told by an Israeli officer that he has his orders. The entire town is aroused. Neighbors know it's useless to protest. The silent frenzy of losing a home this way has no parallel. It's not like a flood or a fire; it's more like a lynching. There is no one to call for help. Hundreds of soldiers surround the house and village, making sure nothing and no one interferes with the bulldozers and the dynamite teams. It's all done legally, too. That is to say, a paper, written in Hebrew, is presented to the householder spelling out the order to blow up or bulldoze his or her home, or to seal it. Typically a family has two hours' notice. At other times, families have been told, particularly during the Intifada, that their son has been seized (not convicted but simply picked up and charged) for throwing a Molotov cocktail, or that he has been captured in an attack on an Israeli. In some cases, only the family orchard (its livelihood) is leveled. Again, notification comes when the machines are already in place. Orchards have been destroyed simply because of a report that Palestinian children were hiding from soldiers among the trees, or because local Jewish settlers said escapees were heading in that direction. During the first three years of the Intifada, when communal punishment was the norm for civil disobedience, the Palestinian Human Rights Information Center recorded 1,726 demolitions or sealings of homes. On average, there are nine Palestinians living in a home. That represents about 15,000 men, women and children forcibly made homeless in those three years. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 5, 1997, Wednesday LENGTH: 1180 words HEADLINE: PALESTINE: ISRAELI BULLDOZERS TARGET PALESTINIAN HOUSES BYLINE: By Deborah Horan DATELINE: NAHALIN, West Bank, Nov. 5 BODY: A few weeks ago, Subhi Fanoun, a 22-year-old Palestinian, listened from his family's house as Israeli bulldozers tore down houses under construction at the edge of his tiny West Bank village ten miles south of Jerusalem. Soldiers had prevented the villagers from witnessing the early- morning destruction, keeping stone-throwing youths from reaching the rocky crest where six houses slated for demolition stood. When the villagers emerged from their homes after noon, two of t he six half-finished homes lay in rubble. When Fanoun reach the crest, he breathed a sigh of relief. By luck or bureaucracy, his house was one of the four still standing. "I'll never forget that day," he recalled. "We argued, we fought with the soldiers... It didn't do any good." His neighbor, Ahmed Ibrahim, wasn't as lucky. The roof of his $ 30,000 two-story concrete shell of a house lay smashed on top of the support beams, now also in rubble, as if a giant had come along and crushed it. Their stories mirror the experiences of hundreds of Palestinians across the West Bank. Since the beginning of this year, an average of three homes a week have been demolished by Israeli bulldozers, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources. Several hu ndred more are slated for demolition. Palestinians are fed an almost-daily diet of newspaper stories about the demolitions. Front-page pictures show women and children crying in front of destroyed homes. The high number prompted Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to call on Israel to halt the practice during her visit to the region in September. Israel says it demolishes houses if they are built too close to a Jewish settlement or to one of more than a dozen "by-pass" road used by settlers to circumvent Palestinian-populated areas. The homes of Palestinians involved in terrorist attacks are also torn down as a warning to future would-be bombers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 The Baltimore Sun Company All Rights Reserved The Baltimore Sun April 18, 2001 Wednesday FINAL EDITION SECTION: TELEGRAPH, Pg. 1A HEADLINE: Israel pulls tanks, troops out of Gaza; U.S. had criticized the army's incursion into Palestinian zone; General vowed to stay; Air, land, sea assault followed Arab mortar attack on settlement BYLINE: Mark Matthews SOURCE: SUN FOREIGN STAFF DATELINE: BEIT HANOUN, GAZA STRIP For months, the Israeli army has bulldozed agricultural areas and demolished buildings near military installations, settlements and roads used by Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip. Its aim was to destroy hiding places used by Palestinian gunmen and to make it harder for Palestinians to plant roadside bombs like the one that killed teachers and badly wounded schoolchildren near the settlement of Kfar Darom last fall. In the past week, the army sent bulldozers that destroyed 47 homes in two densely populated refugee camps - one near the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, the other near a coastal Jewish settlement. Until yesterday, the troops had pulled out once the demolitions were complete. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 The Baltimore Sun Company All Rights Reserved The Baltimore Sun April 22, 2001 Sunday FINAL EDITION SECTION: EDITORIAL, Pg. 3C HEADLINE: Bulldozing peace hopes BYLINE: Michael Brown BODY: ON A BLISTERING day in the summer of 1999 I went to Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem to help Salim Shawamreh rebuild his twice- demolished home. Palestinians, Israeli Jews and Americans worked together to rebuild the "House of Peace." During a break, we chatted amiably as we ate a watermelon. This shared moment is what peace could look like. But it won't happen anytime soon at the Shawamrehs'. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had their home demolished earlier this month. There is no stronger message he could send of his antagonism to the very concept of peace than to destroy this particular home. This is about destroying the dream of what Israel and Palestine could look like and transmuting it into a nightmare of domination and brutality by Israel and those who would colonize still more of the Israeli-occupied territories, consequences aside. Mr. Sharon and his cohort simply are not about to allow the Palestinians to live in peace on 22 percent of historic Palestine. Instead, they press on with plans to make peace a logistical impossibility by expanding settlement activity that State Department spokesman Richard Boucher characterized on April 5 as "provocative" and "inflaming an already volatile situation." The situation is deteriorating fast. The night of April 10 brought an Israeli military intrusion into the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Yunis. It was not the first of its kind, despite what Israel said at the time. I lived through the most terrifying night of my life Dec. 13 when Israeli military forces entered Khan Yunis to demolish houses. I saw Palestinian families with small children fleeing their homes in the dead of night. An elderly man came to the door of his home and vomited. I saw the wounded, including children, a few hours later at the hospital. None of the news reports I saw gave any sense of the widespread terror that had gripped the refugees of Khan Yunis that night. While the attack I witnessed was repelled, the April 10 strike resulted in about 30 homes being demolished. Between the two separate attacks, six Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company The New York Times July 10, 2001, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section A; Page 8; Column 1; Foreign Desk HEADLINE: Israelis Destroy 14 Homes Of Palestinian Refugees BYLINE: By JOEL GREENBERG DATELINE: JERUSALEM, July 9 BODY: Israeli wrecking crews protected by hundreds of riot police officers destroyed 14 homes at the edge of a Palestinian refugee camp in East Jerusalem today in the biggest demolition campaign in the city's Arab neighborhoods in recent years. At Shuafat, the refugee camp, bulldozers tore down 14 unfinished homes built by Palestinian families who had planned to move out of their cramped quarters in the camp. Mayor Ehud Olmert said the structures had been built without permits. Distraught families scuffled with police officers and some people threw themselves on the ground in a futile attempt to block the wrecking crews. Five Palestinians were reportedly hurt and several were arrested. The homeowners, served with demolition orders on Sunday, had no chance to appeal. Mr. Olmert, a member of the rightist Likud Party, defended the action, calling illegal Arab building a cancer and a plague. He vowed to continue the demolitions whenever necessary. Palestinians and civil rights advocates say it is virtually impossible for East Jerusalem Arabs to obtain building permits because of Israeli zoning restrictions intended to limit the growth of their neighborhoods and restrict Arab population growth in the city. The advocates cite official figures showing that far more illegally built homes have been demolished in Arab neighborhoods than in Jewish areas of Jerusalem. According to those figures, the demolitions today exceeded the annual total of Arab homes wrecked by the city in recent years. The Shuafat camp, a garbage-strewn warren of cramped houses and narrow alleys that receives virtually no city services, lies across a valley from Pisgat Zeev, a sprawling Jewish neighborhood built on land captured by the Israelis in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Gazing at the rows of new homes going up across the valley, Wael Muhammad Ali, a 38-year old father of seven, stood next to the ruins of the four-story home he had built with his three brothers for their families. "They can build as much as they like, and I can't," Mr. Ali said of the Israeli neighborhood. "I'm exploding." Then he added: "I'm going to join Hamas and blow myself up," referring to the militant Islamic group. "Write that down." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 The Financial Times Limited Financial Times (London) July 11, 2001, Wednesday London Edition 1 SECTION: THE AMERICAS & MIDDLE EAST; Pg. 11 HEADLINE: Demolition triggers Gaza gun battle BYLINE: By RALPH ATKINS DATELINE: JERUSALEM BODY: Israel's demolition of at least a dozen Palestinian houses at the southern end of the Gaza Strip triggered a fierce gun battle yesterday, less than 24 hours after the demolition of a similar number of properties in Arab East Jerusalem. Israel said it had sent bulldozers and tanks into the Rafah area, near the border with Egypt, to destroy buildings that had been used by Palestinian gunmen in an Israeli-controlled area. Three Israelis and five Palestinians were wounded in the gun battle - one of the worst since the two sides agreed a ceasefire last month. But Palestinians said the action in Gaza was an incursion into areas under their authority and violated the ceasefire agreement struck under US auspices. Muhammad Hijazi, a local Palestinian politician, said Yassir Arafat's Palestinian Authority was trying to hold to the truce but "it is very difficult for it to stop people defending their own homes". With Peace Now, the leftwing campaign group, accusing the Israeli government of "acting out of revenge, with aggressiveness and violence", the demolitions this week exposed rifts within the coalition government of Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister. Aides to Shimon Peres, the Labour foreign minister, said he had tried to stop the demolition on Monday of the Palestinian houses at a refugee camp in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967. The US State Department criticised the East Jerusalem demolitions as "provocative". Mr Arafat yesterday condemned "a new crime among other crimes committed by the Israeli army". The European Union said it was "extremely concerned" by Israel's actions. It called on the authorities "to put an immediate end to this sort of activity", saying it was complicating efforts by the international community "and the parties themselves to end the crisis". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 Newsday, Inc. Newsday (New York, NY) July 22, 2001 Sunday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A04 HEADLINE: Conflict Takes Its Toll On Farmers; Palestinian crops destroyed by troops BYLINE: By Matthew McAllester; MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT Near Al Jalamay are Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law. To travel between the settlements and Israel, the settlers have to drive along a two-lane road that bisects the market - a road that Israeli troops have closed to Palestinian vehicles. Late last month, Palestinian gunmen killed a settler on the road, several hundred yards from the market. A few days later, on July 3, Israeli bulldozers came and destroyed about 30 shops and stalls in Al Jalamay. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 Scottish Media Newspapers Limited The Herald (Glasgow) July 23, 2001 SECTION: Pg. 9 HEADLINE: Just get the hell out of here: BYLINE: Catriona Drew Since last September, according to statistics of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, tens of thousands of olive trees, palm trees, and fruit trees - the backbone of the Palestinian agricultural economy - have been uprooted and destroyed by the Israeli army. Thousands of acres of agricultural land along with their greenhouses have been razed. Drive south through the Gazan countryside and the destruction is everywhere to be seen. Nor is the security policy confined to agriculture. In the old town of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, the Barhoum family sits in front of a cousin's house. What remains of their own house lies fewer than 50 yards away - a pile of stones and rubble and twisted iron poles. The week before, the father tells me, at around 3.30am, they had been woken by the sound of Israeli tanks, bulldozers, and gunfire. He collected the children and his ageing mother and ran from the house. Within minutes it was being bulldozed. There was no time to remove furniture or other belongings. Now, along with 20 other neighbours whose houses were demolished the same night, they live in a community of tents. Since the start of the intifada, 334 houses in Gaza are reported to have been demolished by the Israeli army. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2001 The Baltimore Sun Company All Rights Reserved The Baltimore Sun August 29, 2001 Wednesday FINAL EDITION SECTION: TELEGRAPH, Pg. 1A HEADLINE: Keeping promise, Israel storms Palestinian town; Tanks take Beit Jala to halt sniper fire as Sharon had pledged BYLINE: Peter Hermann SOURCE: SUN FOREIGN STAFF DATELINE: BEIT JALA, WEST BANK Israeli soldiers commandeered five Palestinian houses and used armored bulldozers to destroy eight others. The soldiers briefly took over a girls school, transformed a community center into an army base and placed sandbags around the Evangelical Lutheran Church. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 2002 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. Toronto Star January 14, 2002 Monday Ontario Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A07 HEADLINE: Palestinians, Israelis condemn bulldozing of refugee camp BYLINE: Sandro Contenta, Toronto Star ; AHMED JADALLAH/REUTERS HIGHLIGHT: Destruction of Palestinian homes in response to Hamas gunmen killing 4 Israeli soldiers BODY: The wrath of Israeli bulldozers has left Marwan Abdul Libdah standing on the ruins of his life. Most of what he owns is buried a metre and a half deep beneath his feet, in a flattened pile of concrete that once was his home. "I lost everything, everything. They left me with the clothes on my back and my children - thank God I was able to save my children," said Libdah, 42, describing how he whisked his eight children to safety moments before the walls collapsed. Nearby, at a tent that is now her home, Karima Ahmad watched the Red Cross pass out supplies of blankets, cooking kits and gas lamps earmarked for at least 450 Palestinians left homeless by the bulldozers. She described trying to rouse her three children and husband, a deaf mute, as the Israeli army bulldozers moved in at about 2 a.m. last Thursday. "The wall on the south side of my home collapsed, and then I saw the bulldozer move right into my house," said Ahmad, a 32-year-old Palestinian refugee. Clutching her 7-month-old daughter, she added: "Tell me, what crime has this child committed - tell me. They are terrorists. There's no other word for them." Palestinians and Israelis alike are condemning the destruction by Israeli army bulldozers of this Palestinian refugee camp calling a revolting form of revenge and punishment. The bulldozers moved in hours after Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli soldiers at an outpost near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. << Maybe gives a little perspective on bin Laden's threat that we won't know peace until the children of Palestine know peace?