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Collective punishment of Palestinians

Saturday, 27 February 2016 8:28 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 February 2016 9:01 AM ]

Israeli soldiers stand on a street as a Palestinian man walks holding his children on February 15, 2016 at the Amari Palestinian refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah during clashes with Israeli soldiers that erupted after they entered the camp early in the morning. AFP

The Israeli military has been accused several times of practicing collective punishment against the Palestinian people as an official policy.

Demolitions of Palestinian houses occur under the pretext that the homes were constructed without permits, this also happens to homes constructed in pre-1967 al-Quds (Jerusalem) i.e. before Israel’s takeover of the city.

Other excuses for the demolition of Palestinian homes include if a family member had attacked Israel or Israelis as such house demolitions have been considered an act of collective punishment.

When a home is marked for demolition, the owner is forced to pay for the demolition of his own home or demolishes it himself to save some money.

After the demolition the Palestinian owners are forced off the remains of the property, thus this policy is viewed upon as a means of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem.

Another policy that includes collective punishment is body confiscations. Palestinians accused of alleged attacks and are killed by the Israeli military forces have their bodies confiscated.

Tel Aviv claims that this is because of a “security threat” against Israel, and as such they have confiscated over 240 bodies since the 1950s and 1960s.

Some of the bodies are kept in freezers at temperatures below 70 degrees, a temperature that can damage the remains. Other bodies are kept in the “numbers cemetery,” where their names are removed and they are given numbers.

We will also come across other forms of collective punishment practiced by Israel against the Palestinians; in addition to that, we will speak to some of the victims of these policies, as well as legal experts who will tell us more of the implications of collective punishment.

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