By Alexander J. Apfel
As Israel endures another cycle of terrorist activity, stricter measures have been called for in order to prevent the wave of violence, particularly in Yerushalayim’s Old City.
Accordingly, the government has renewed its punitive measures of house demolition of homes belonging to terrorist offenders. Nevertheless, commentators have raised questions about the policy’s effectiveness as a deterrence to further attacks.
In an interview with TPS, Professor Esteban F. Klor from the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, claimed that demolitions only have a limited impact. Klor, who co-authored a research paper in May 2014 on the impact of house demolition in preventing suicide attacks, told TPS that while destroying houses certainly decreases the immediate willingness of individuals to commit attacks, such effects are not long lasting.
According to Klor, “the effect of decreasing the likelihood completely disappears within two months. In other words there is an immediate effect but the magnitude is very small. So if you ask me if this is effective and is going to solve the problem then I would say no.”
He added that the government measures are used to “send messages to the Israeli public that the people are being punished rather than to the Palestinian public.”
Itzik Shadni, Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) of the Israel Defense Forces, however does not completely agree with the professor. He told TPS that the policy is indeed designed to send a message to potential Palestinian terrorists but cannot yield results without measures being taken in parallel with the home demolition policy.
“You have to take a variation of actions in order to destroy this terror. One of them is destroying houses. Other measures should be that if a terrorist came from a certain village then the village should be on lockdown for one month. They can eat, drink and go about their daily lives as usual and in peace. But they should not be able to work,” Shadni told TPS.
He added that the way the policy of house demolition is currently being implemented is doomed to fail, given the intervals between the attacks and the demolition.
“Yesterday they destroyed two buildings in Jerusalem for something that happened about a year and a half ago.” Shadni said that “after one hour the houses should be gone. No more than one hour. Do it a few times I guarantee that the terror will decrease.”
The IDF announced last Tuesday, October 6 that it had demolished the homes of two Palestinian men from East Jerusalem for terror attacks committed in 2014. The homes belonged to Ghassan Abu Jamal and Muhammed Naif El-Jaabis. On November 17 in 2014, El-Jaabis and his brother murdered four Jewish men and a Druze police officer with a meat cleaver and a gun. Jamal plowed an earthmover into a bus on August 4, the same year.
Tazpit News Agency
{Matzav.com Israel}
Burial is an all important factor in arab culture : I say, dump the body at sea. Furthermore, do NOT publish the names of the killer terrorists thus eliminating the parade and fame that they now celebrate. The young and stupid ones care not a thing about anybody’s life nor their own death – they want to be celebrated and be famous! ELIMINATE THAT! Throw their bodies away. (Of course take pics to prove that they were eliminated! )
They should learn from the US government when it comes to certain crimes: seize all assets even before the guilty verdict, take away children when convicted, take away all human dignity when in prison. That’s one of many ways to curb terrorism. If whiners start complaining of harshness, point out that’s a common experience for drug and organized crime offenders in the US and other self righteous European states.
Don’t demolish the houses – let the victims’ families possess and move in into the terrorists’ houses.
#3 u mean live in arab villages?
U serious?
rap the dead terrorist in Pig skin , dip the bullets in Pig Blood. Destroy the homes the same day.
Wake up and stop the Madness
Stop using inaccurate language. There are no ‘Palestinians.’; Only Arab/Moslem/ trespassers/intruders/squatters/interlopers – all murderers or would-be murderers.
Mr. Anonymous, no Jewish victim wants to live in Wadi Puchin or Wafouk el Bahhar. Those are vermin towns. Jenin or Beit Tzaffa ain’t no better. Think of לוט in Sedom when they all surrounded his house!
Don’t just destroy their homes but deport all family members and dump them in Abbas’s front yard and have him take care of them.You will see how quick he ends the violence
Deport the entire family of every terrorist to their country of origin – most of them came from elsewhere in the Arab world when Hashem let us Jews start coming home and helping us rebuild Israel. The few that originated here can take the Arab country of their choice. That way instead of their families being delighted with the terrorist’s martyrdom, even the uncles and cousins will be cursing the villain for sending them into an earthly gehinnom.
comment number 3, are you suggesting that the victims families move to ramallah
To clarify comment #3: If the victims’ families don’t want to move into an Arab village, they can still take possession of the terrorist’s house, fly an Israeli flag, install surveillance cameras covering every inch of street view, rent out the house to some drug addicts, open up a dog and pig farm, play super loud rock music during muslim call for prayer. In other words, there are simple ways to make them regret acts of terror against us – regret every day, not just during the demolition.