Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank village of Kobar before dawn on Monday and destroyed the family home of Palestinian prisoner Qassam al-Barghouti, sparking widespread clashes in the village between armed Israeli soldiers and local youth.
Al-Barghouti is accused of being involved in an attack last August that killed Israeli teenager Rina Shnerb and injured her father and brother while they were hiking near the illegal Dolev settlement in the West Bank, northwest of Jerusalem.
According to local media reports, dozens of Israeli forces raided the village in the early hours of Monday and cordoned off the area around Barghouti’s home before bulldozing the house to the ground.
Forces also reportedly fired tear gas and other crowd dispersal measures on local youth who had gathered to attempt to stop the demolition by throwing stones and burning tires near the scene.
Videos posted on social media show local youth hurling Molotov cocktails at the military convoy as they were leaving the village after completing the demolition.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that four Palestinians were injured during the clashes, including one person in moderate condition who was hit by a tear gas grenade.
Photos and videos of the demolition show Israeli forces demolishing the top floor of a two-story building, leaving the bottom floor, allegedly belonging to al-Barghouti’s sister, relatively unscathed.
The homes of the two other Palestinians involved in the attack with al-Barghouti were also destroyed in March and April of this year.
The al-Barghouti family was first notified of the intention to destroy their home on February 11. They subsequently appealed the demolition order, but were denied by the Israeli High Court, paving the way for Monday’s demolition.
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett praised the demolition of al-Barghouti’s home as an “important tool in deterring future terror attacks,” the Times of Israel reported.
While Israel has applauded its policy of punitive home demolitions as serving as a deterrent for attacks on Israelis, the Israeli military has itself said in previous reports that the practice is ineffective, and in reality bolsters negative sentiments towards the Israeli government.
Rights groups have condemned the policy as constituting collective punishment, a violation of international law under the Geneva Convention.
Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has said the following of the practice:
“The policy of punitive house demolition is, by definition, meant to harm people who have done nothing wrong and are suspected of no wrongdoing, but are related to Palestinians who attacked or attempted to attack Israeli civilians or security forces.
Even if this deterrent effect were achieved, it would not render the policy moral or legal. By harming innocents to achieve a goal that has nothing to do with them, the authorities treat these persons as a means rather than as independent human beings with rights. Such a policy is inherently immoral and unlawful.”
https://daysofpalestine.com/post/14152/b-tselem-settler-violence-in-west-bank-sees-noticeable-rise-in-april#.XqOeUGWpgUI.twitter
B’Tselem: “Settler violence in West Bank sees noticeable rise in April” April 25, 2020
EXCERPT:
“Human rights center B’Tselem said that Israeli settlers have stepped up their attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during April despite the coronavirus crisis.
“B’Tselem said in an official report that since the start of the corona crisis, Israeli settlers have ramped up attacks against Palestinians throughout the West Bank, with full state backing. The attacks have increased despite the movement restrictions, lockdowns and social distancing measures introduced to battle the pandemic.
“During the first three weeks of April, B’Tselem documented 23 settler attacks against Palestinians. In all of March, 23 incidents were documented, 11 of them after the severe restrictions on movement and social gatherings were imposed (mid-March).
“In comparison, 11 attacks were recorded in January and 12 in February. In these violent incidents, settlers, some of them carrying firearms, physically assaulted Palestinians with the aid of clubs, axes, electroshock weapons, stones and assault dogs, in some cases causing severe injury. Settlers also attacked homes, torched cars, vandalized and uprooted olive trees and other crops, and stole livestock.
“According to B’Tselem, these incidents took place throughout the West Bank, with several epicenters: the area around the recently expanded outpost of Havat Ma’on in the southern hills of al-Khalil, the area around the settlement of Shilo and its adjoining bloc of outposts, with the villages of al-Mughayir, Turmusaya, Qaryut and Qusrah within target range, and the area around the settlement of Halamish, where another new outpost was recently erected.
“Settlers harass Palestinian shepherds almost daily in the Jordan Valley near the settlements of Rimonim and Kochav Hashahar, and in the southern hills..”
The Trump administration shipped a lot of PPEs to Israel for the IDF. So that they can do this kind of thing without exposing themselves to Covid 19? (And you may have read (New Yorker website) about Americans working, under the radar, to get PPEs for their local hospitals and health care workers. Under the radar so that the federal government would not steal it.)