From The Telegraph:
Ehud Barak, Israel’s increasingly hawkish defence minister, approved an intelligence recommendation to demolish the houses of Hakim and Ajmad Awad, two cousins from the Palestinian village of Awarta.
The decision, the first of its kind in nearly seven years, will render the wives and children of both men homeless.
The two Palestinians are serving life sentences for the murders of Ehud and Ruth Fogel, as well as three of their six children, in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in March, 2011.
The dead included a three-month-old infant and a four-year-old boy stabbed to death in a frenzied attack that horrified Israel.
The Israeli authorities abandoned the once common practice of punitive demolitions in 2005 after facing heavy international criticism.
The recommendation to resurrect the policy was made by Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, which justified the move on the grounds that the two families of the two men had destroyed evidence relevant to the case.
The agency said it would also discourage “potential terrorists” from mounting similar attacks, a sentiment echoed by Yaakov Perry, the former head of Shin Bet.
“This is one of the most brutal terrorist attacks ever and the Shin Bet thinks that the demolition is a punitive step that may deter other terrorists from carrying out such tragic crimes,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.
But human rights groups condemned the decision, which still has to be ratified by legal advisers to the Israeli government.
“The perpetrators have already been arrested and convicted,” said Jeff Halper, the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. “If they demolish the houses this is a case of collective punishment which is illegal under both Israeli and international law as it is against the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
The decision also attracted criticism from within the Israeli Defence Forces, with opponents warning that it could be interpreted as an act of vengeance that would increase tensions in the West Bank, which has been largely peaceful since the murders.
since collective punishment supposedly was abandoned in 1905, three years later what was operation cast lead, not to mention the almost routine idf bombardment of gaza any time a false flag or even a firecracker goes off there?
>> Ehud Barak … approved an intelligence recommendation to demolish the houses of Hakim and Ajmad Awad …
“Ajmad” is eerily reminiscent of “Ahmadinejad”. ’nuff said.
;-)
/The decision, the first of its kind in nearly seven years, will render the wives and children of both men homeless./
They are both unmarried and have no children.
But who trust journalists these days.
I personally would prefer for us to leave the houses alone and just impose the capital punishment on these two human animals.
This is one of those rare cases when it really is justifiable.
I think that demolishing the building where Ehud Barak lives would be a measure of deterrence for innumerable cruel and senseless attacks. It would also serve as a deterrent for selling condo units to war criminals.
Yet that would not be a civilized action.
3/18/12 Barak sells Akirov Towers apartment for NIS 26.5M
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has bought an apartment in the prestigious “Assuta Bauhaus Village” project on Tel Aviv’s Jabotinsky Street for NIS 8-10M.
Hm. Assuta Bauhaus Village seems to be a crime against two venerable concepts, village (26 floor towers?) and Bauhaus.
More seriously, the way we penalize criminals is more about us than about them. Are we savages or are we not?