IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Demolishing the homes of suspected — or convicted — Palestinian terrorists amounts to collective punishment that in some cases could constitute a grave breach of international law, a group of Israeli human rights organizations argued before the High Court of Justice on Wednesday. The people most affected by home demolitions are the suspect’s family members, who have committed no crime themselves. In many cases, the accused family member — when alive — has not yet been convicted in a civilian or military court when the demolition is carried out, making the demolitions extrajudicial.
on December 4, 2014
The Israeli Government’s use of house demolition as a punitive measure in response to alleged acts of violence by Palestinians must end immediately, two United Nations experts urged today, adding that the practice – which targets Palestinian homes in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory – is a violation of human rights law.
on November 25, 2014
The rabbi of a major modern Orthodox synagogue in New Jersey has written a blog post that calls for Israel to collectively punish Arab Israelis and Palestinians until they realize “they have no future in the land of Israel.”
on November 24, 2014
At least 600 Palestinian children were arrested in Jerusalem since last June. Of these chlidren, nearly 40% were reportedly exposed to sexual abuse during arrest or investigation by the Israeli authorities, according to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC). The PCC says that the daily arrest campaigns constitute a collective punishment against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.
on November 21, 2014
Fact Sheets
On Wednesday, the Israeli government destroyed the home of a Palestinian man who killed two Israelis in Jerusalem last month, part of a policy of collective punishment. The IMEU offers the following fact sheet on Israel's controversial practice of punitive home demolitions, as well as Israel's use of home demolitions to Judaize occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
on November 20, 2014
"She will call me Daddy and Mummy," insisted 11-year-old Amir Hamad, cradling his infant sister in his arms after the Gaza war left him and his four siblings orphans. Fifty days of bloody fighting in and around the wartorn Gaza Strip has cost the lives of nearly 500 children, but it has also turned hundreds more into orphans, who face a future deprived of their parents' love.
on August 28, 2014
Q&As
Since its latest assault on the occupied and besieged coastal territory began, Israel has repeatedly denied permission for AI and HRW staff to enter Gaza, while Egypt has failed to respond to requests to enter via its border crossing with Gaza.
on August 27, 2014
Five Palestinians were killed Sunday afternoon including three children when an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll since midnight to 13.
on August 24, 2014
Manal Abu Assar, 39, took a few moments to wash her children's clothes in the park next to al-Shifa Hospital, where her family has set up a tent. She took advantage of the absence of men, who left the hospital park in the morning. Abu Assar and her 13-member family fled the neighborhood of Shajaiya in eastern Gaza following a major attack by Israeli forces on July 19. “The situation is increasingly worsening in the hospital park, where thousands of displaced people have taken refuge,” Abu Assar told Al-Monitor.
on August 18, 2014